Today, we're in the future:

We’ve come a long way since 1985.

When Marty McFly and Doc Brown traveled 30 years into the future, we could only imagine the innovations we take for granted today -- new ideas and technologies that have completely changed the way we live, learn, and work.

Back then, if you’d have told me that I’d go from talking on a cell phone to talking cell biology, I would never have believed you. But today, The Michael J. Fox Foundation is helping to spearhead research collaborations to speed a future in which we can treat, cure, and even prevent brain diseases like Parkinson's.

So what’s possible in another 30 years? Call me an optimist, but I believe that by 2045 we’ll find the cures we seek -- especially because of all the smart, passionate people working to make it happen. Doctors and researchers around the world are developing new tools to improve the diagnosis and treatment of brain diseases, to tailor treatments -- for all illnesses -- through precision medicine, and to make life better for millions of people. This truly is the stuff of the future.

Today, on “Back to the Future Day,” I challenge you to imagine the world you want to live in thirty years from now. The White House is hosting a series of online conversations with innovators across the country all day long. Check it out and add your voice here.

We can't all be brain scientists, but all of us can get involved. One reason Parkinson’s research has come so far in the past 15 years is that people and families living with the disease have stepped up as advocates and innovators themselves, working to build the future we all want.

Together, we’ll make neurological illness a thing of the past.

And if we all eventually get hoverboards, well -- that's a bonus.

--Michael J. Fox