TIME 100 HEALTH-CATALYSTS

It's been a long time since there was good news about Parkinson's disease, a neurodegenerative condition that affects more than 8 million people worldwide.

Michael J. Fox CHASING PARKINSON'S TREATMENTS

But that changed this year, thanks in part to Michael J. Fox's perseverance in raising awareness and pushing scientific boundaries in search of a treatment. More than two decades after he created the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research, the charity-funded organization is seeing its thoughtfully chosen research efforts pay off. Last year, data from the foundation's Parkinson's Progression Markers Initiative (PPMI) helped scientists discover a biomarker for the disease that led to the first Parkinson's test, which detects abnormal forms of a protein called alpha synuclein-even before symptoms appear. It is also funding ongoing studies of multiple promising treatments that will hopefully address the disease's root causes.

Chances are, none of this would be happening at this speed had the actor not decided to share his diagnosis and raise awareness of the dire need for basic research into Parkinson's. He was diagnosed in 1991 at age 29, but kept it secret until 1998, unsure of what impact his disclosure would have, both on his personal life and on the Parkinson's community. But he realized that "with me as a touchpoint, it provided the opportunity to raise the profile of the disease and open the door to get some questions answered," he says, and started the foundation in 2000. "We've systematically kicked doors open one by one."