Since its inception in 1997, the mission of the Center for the Study of Parkinson’s Disease has been to conduct basic and translational research which paves the way for innovative and more effective treatments for Parkinson’s patients – treatments that aim at halting or even reversing the degenerative process at the earlier stages of disease.

We are entering a promising new stage of Parkinson’s research, where the pieces of the puzzle are coming together to reveal new opportunities for therapeutic treatments. Using detailed information gathered from our ongoing long-term studies of a large group of patients, we continue to discover important clues about the effects of environment, genes, and their complex interactions in disease etiology and progression. Taking these data into the laboratory, we are mapping out the underlying pathways and processes within and outside the central nervous system involved in the progressive dysfunction and eventual degeneration. We are beginning to connect anatomical, electrophysiological, and chemical changes in the brain to functional and behavioral outcomes, and to decipher how differences in gene expression profiles can determine whether a cell survives or dies.  And all of these insights enable us to pinpoint new and promising drug targets, and to thoroughly evaluate the next generation of treatments which can address the many motor and non-motor challenges of Parkinson's disease.

We invite you to explore this website and learn more about our collaborative research projects, as well as educational programs and resources for scientists and the public.