Preclinical Parkinson's Research Program

What is the first thing that comes to your mind when you think about Parkinson’s disease (PD)? Maybe you know someone with PD and you think about this person, about how she or he shakes or has trouble walking. But, did you know that PD affects the nerves of the heart? And the gut? If your PD friend is not talking as much as he/she used to, remember that as PD progresses it may also affect speech. And swallowing. And mood. Your friend is not alone. After age 60, one in every 100 people is affected with PD.

The goal of our team is to understand and find solutions for PD. We hope that what we learn from our PD research will also help patients with other neurodegenerative disorders. We choose PD as a research platform because of how many people are affected by PD and because, although it is a complex disease, we can model different aspects of PD. We strive to identify neglected issues, discover gaps in knowledge and collaborate with other groups to accelerate the process of bridging findings into the clinic.

Our lab is part of the Wisconsin National Primate Research Center and takes full advantage of the rich resources and highly collaborative nature of the UW-Madison community.