Dr Eleanor Drummond and her team at the University of Sydney’s Brain and Mind Centre are making strong progress in their research in Progressive Supranuclear Palsy. Their recent work published in the Journal of Neurochemistry is not just a scientific milestone, it could pave the way for treatments that currently do not exist today. Eleanor presented their work recently at the 2025 Sohn Hearts and Minds Conference.
An Unfunded Disease With No Cure
PSP is a brain disease that gradually destroys the cells that control movement, balance, speech, and swallowing. Unlike Parkinson’s, which it is sometimes mistaken for, it progresses faster and does not respond to treatment. Most people diagnosed with Progressive Supranuclear Palsy (PSP) live for only seven to ten years after symptoms begin. There is no cure, and no drug has yet been shown to slow its progression.
It affects roughly one in 100,000 people, so is very rare (compared to cardiovascular which affects 1 in 6 Australians, Alzheimer’s 1 in 70, breast cancer 1 in 7 women, and prostate cancer 1 in 5 men).
Most people have never heard of PSP. Unlike better known diseases, it sits outside the mainstream of public awareness and philanthropic attention. There are no large fundraising campaigns, no household name advocates, no deep pool of dedicated funding. It is precisely the kind of problem that falls through the gaps. This is the kind of problem the TDM Foundation was set up to support.
Our Approach
The TDM Foundation is issue-agnostic. Meaning we do not restrict our funding to specific issue areas, for example, diabetes research or education. Rather, we back innovative research and social impact organisations based on a consistent set of questions: is this the right leader or researcher, the right innovative work, at the right stage, where our support could genuinely make a difference by helping them scale their impact?
While personal connection to an issue isn’t a requirement, when it exists it can be very powerful. In the case of PSP, Tom and Ed Cowan experienced its awful impact at close watch with their mother over a decade ago.
Watch Dr Drummond’s presentation at the 2025 SOHN Hearts and Minds Conference where she discusses her research into dementia and Progessive Supranuclear Palsy
Groundbreaking Work, Happening Today
Dr Eleanor Drummond and her team are making strong progress in their research.
PSP is caused by the build-up of a protein called tau in the brain. Tau normally supports the structure of brain cells, but in PSP it becomes distorted and toxic, eventually killing the cells around it. Understanding which brain proteins change as this happens and why is the critical first step toward finding treatments.
To study this, Dr Drummond’s team uses mass spectrometry – think of this as an extraordinarily detailed inventory of everything happening inside a cell, which can identify and measure thousands of proteins from a single sample of brain tissue. They recently published the first roadmap of brain protein changes in PSP.
The headline finding: the proteins responsible for generating energy inside brain cells are consistently and significantly depleted in PSP. In other words, the power supply to the brain’s neurons appears to be failing.
This work, published in the Journal of Neurochemistry in late 2025 and supported in part by TDM Foundation funding, is not just a scientific milestone, it could pave the way for treatments that currently do not exist today. Recognising that even more could still be discovered, they have since completed a new study profiling the brain protein changes in PSP, which is the largest of its kind ever performed globally on PSP, analysing more than 7,700 proteins per sample.
How Early Funding Creates A Path For More
The TDM Foundation’s approach to medical research is built around a specific kind of leverage. We back early-stage, potentially considered higher-risk work, the kind that government bodies like the NHMRC are structurally limited in their ability to fund. Our goal is to support researchers generate the proof of concept that increases the probability that their work can then be supported by government and larger foundation grants. We also support proven ideas that are ready for translation to larger populations but where there is no commercially viable model to help their roll out (our work in pain management fits this criteria).
Our strategy to date is showing promising results. Our early backing helped Dr Drummond’s team attract a USD $500,000 grant from the Rainwater Charitable Foundation, the largest funder of PSP research in the world. That is the unlock we are playing for: philanthropic capital at the right early moment supporting remarkable researchers to secure follow-on from larger sources.
The research continues to expand, with new studies underway and a prioritised list of drug targets for PSP in development. Dr Drummond and her team’s work is quietly and methodically changing what is known about this disease, which makes us so incredibly excited about supporting her work in the years to come.
