A cautious investor wants to find the cure for Parkinson's

Ed Rudman is a cautious man. He has spent a lifetime steering wealthy clients away from risky investments, and carefully tending their fortunes for future generations.

So his latest investment might come as a shock. At 69, Rudman is putting his own money into a start-up drug developer with eight employees in a tiny lab in Cambridge. They have a handful of patents and a zealous plan to slay an illness that affects 1 million Americans but one that no pharmaceutical giant has tackled -- Parkinson's disease. Though a long shot, Rudman says, the payoff could be big.

"If these drugs that come out of this can slow this disease, or cure it," Rudman said, "that's my life."

Or at least, he hopes, the lives of his children and grandchildren. One among the million, Rudman was diagnosed with Parkinson's in 1997. Suddenly, this man so accustomed to discretion in the financial matters of others -- clients like astronaut John Glenn and Philadelphia Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie -- had a secret of his own, and he kept it for seven long years.

Rudman told no one but his family and co-workers. His symptoms developed slowly, and the drugs that mask the disease's tremors have done their job. Trim and active, and looking 10 years younger than his age, Rudman remained senior partner at Atlantic Trust, the private investment firm he founded in 1980 as Pell Rudman, until last fall. He saw the firm through a 2001 buyout (the second in its history) by Amvescap of London and helped it grow to $17 billion in assets, while keeping up on Boston Symphony fund-raisers and travel last year to India with his wife, Carole.

"I never thought I'd fully retire," Rudman said. "I'm much too impatient."

That impatience shook Rudman out of his silence two years ago. Writing checks to Parkinson's foundations wasn't satisfying, he said. At first, he looked into stem-cell research, a path championed by actor Michael J. Fox, who also has the disease. "A lot of smart people are saying it will work," said Rudman, a former Beth Israel Hospital chairman and a director of its owner, CareGroup Inc. But he wondered, too, if there were other answers to the neurodegenerative disease, an answer that might come sooner.

He found what he was looking for in Peter T. Lansbury Jr. , a professor of neurology at Harvard Medical School, and his research laboratory at Brigham and Women's Hospital . Lansbury, 48, had worked for many years on Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, and other afflictions where brain function is hurt by dying neurons. With Parkinson's, he believes if the disease is caught early, he can slow its progression, perhaps for 10 years or more, and prevent the drop in the brain's production of dopamine, a chemical that controls movement.

Lansbury said this drug, if it works, could be a nearer-term remedy than stem cells. "It is really intoxicating to think about repairing the brain," but, "my strategy has always been: pills work."

Rudman wrote Lansbury a $150,000 check to support his efforts. "He did the Ed thing and talked to everybody," Lansbury said. By the end of 2005, Rudman was more than an angel investor: He helped Lansbury launch Link Medicine Corp. and raise $5 million from eight investors -- mostly wealthy people with Parkinson's -- and one large biotech company, whose name they haven't disclosed. They've licensed patents from Brigham and Women's on the findings from Lansbury's lab and licensed a drug compound from a pharmaceutical firm that failed on another disease, but, Lansbury believes, shows promise with Parkinson's. They are aiming for clinical trials by year-end.

Jeffery W. Kelly , dean of the chemistry department at Scripps Research Institute , has worked with Lansbury in the past and admires his work.

"Peter is very creative," Kelly said. "He's a person who has trained rigorously at chemistry, but his research over the years has become more and more biological, which I think is necessary to understand these very complicated diseases."

Joseph B. Martin , dean of Harvard Medical School, said he's enthusiastic about Peter's approach, but, "only time will tell if it proves to be a major answer in finding new treatments for Parkinson's disease."

Those involved in the company are trying to keep their high hopes in check. Especially Rudman.

"There is probably nothing that's more risky than early-stage biotech," he said. "I realize this might not happen." Still, he continues to woo new investors, sleuthing out other wealthy business people with Parkinson's, who, like him, have more at stake than money. Link Medicine will raise another round of capital this year without any traditional venture capital funding, as a result.

Adam J. Rosenberg , Link's chief executive and a lawyer who has worked on many biotech deals, said Rudman's moral support and business experience have been as critical as his financial backing. For Lansbury, having a real patient involved has been motivating. Rudman has been known to call Lansbury from his cellphone while traveling in Paris, and to answer the Link phone when he's in that office.

"People like Ed who have resources and are used to making things happen and have this disease are the most willing to do this," Lansbury said. "They're willing to put aside the inherent risk of going where no one's gone before."

Beth Healy can be reached at bhealy@globe.com.