Ted Dawson, MD, PhD
Ted Dawson, MD, PhD, is the Leonard and Madlyn Abramson Professor in Neurodegenerative Diseases and Director of the Institute for Cell Engineering at Johns Hopkins Medicine., He received his MD and pharmacology PhD from the University of Utah, followed by neurology residency at University of Pennsylvania and movement disorders fellowship at Johns Hopkins. Dr. Dawson’s honors include the Derek Denny-Brown Young Neurological Scholar Award, the Santiago Grisolia Medal, and a Javits Neuroscience Investigator Award. He was elected to the Association of American Physicians and is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He pioneered the role of nitric oxide (NO) in neuronal injury, elucidated molecular mechanisms by which NO kills neurons, and discovered the parthanatos cell death pathway. His laboratory has made important discoveries on how neurons die in models of Parkinson’s disease, which are enabling clinical strategies for disease- modifying therapies for various neurodegenerative disorders.
Daniel Dombeck, PhD
Daniel Dombeck, PhD, is an Associate Professor and AT&T Research Fellow in the Department of Neurobiology at Northwestern University. He received his BSc in physics at The University of Illinois and his PhD in physics at Cornell University. He carried out postdoctoral research at Princeton University in the Department of Molecular Biology and The Princeton Neuroscience Institute. Dr. Dombeck’s lab has pioneered the development and use of sub-cellular resolution functional imaging in behaving mice and discovered rapid movement related activity patterns from nigrostriatal dopamine axons. He was a Chicago Biomedical Consortium Junior Investigator, a Klingenstein Fellow, a McKnight Foundation Scholar, and a recipient of the Whitehall Research Grant Award. He is the associate director of the Northwestern University Interdepartmental Neuroscience graduate program and the director of the NIMH Neurobiology of Information Storage Training Grant.
Shaline Fazal, PhD
Shaline is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Cambridge. She has been involved in various projects focused around several aspects of Parkinson's disease.
April Frazier, PhD
April Frazier, PhD, is a Senior Project Manager in the laboratories of Drs. Cecilia Lindestam Arlehamn and Alessandro Sette at the La Jolla Institute for Immunology, La Jolla, CA. She has a science background in chemistry and cancer research, but has transitioned to project management and helps her team to investigate T cell-mediated responses against diseases and understanding healthy T cell responses.
Molly Gale Hammell, PhD
Dr. Molly Gale Hammell is an Associate Professor in the Simons Center for Quantitative Biology at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. Prior to starting her own lab at CSHL, she studied small RNA pathways as a postdoctoral fellow in the lab of Victor Ambros at UMASS Medical School. She received a Ben Barres Early Career Acceleration award from CZI's Neurodegeneration Challenge Network.
Adriana Galvan, PhD
Adriana Galvan, PhD, received her master’s and doctoral degrees in Mexico City (Mexico), and completed postdoctoral research training at Emory University (Atlanta, GA). She joined the faculty of Emory University in 2009 and is currently an Associate Professor of Neurology. She studies the brain regions involved in movement planning and execution known as the basal ganglia, which are strongly affected in Parkinson’s disease. Her work is conducted at the Yerkes National Primate Research Center, where she uses functional and anatomical techniques, including electrophysiological recordings, optogenetic and chemogenetic techniques, as well as light and electron microscopy approaches to study motor circuits in primates. Dr. Galvan is also a project leader of Emory’s Udall Center of Excellence in Parkinson’s Disease Research and receives independent research funding (R01, R21) from the National Institutes of Health.
Scott Grafton, MD
Scott T. Grafton, MD, is a Distinguished Professor in the Department of Psychological and Brain Science at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB), where he directs the UCSB Brain Imaging Center. He received BA degrees in mathematics and psychobiology at the University of California at Santa Cruz (1980) and an MD at the University of Southern California (USC) (1984). Dr. Grafton completed residencies in neurology at the University of Washington and nuclear medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles, where he developed expertise in functional imaging using positron emission tomography and magnetic resonance imaging. He developed brain imaging programs in the Schools of Medicine at USC, Emory University, and Dartmouth College before joining the faculty at UCSB in 2006. Dr. Grafton oversees an interdisciplinary research team working at the interface of learning theory, the organization of skilled action, network science, and movement disorders using multimodal brain imaging.
Ashley Harms, PhD
Ashley S. Harms, PhD, is an assistant professor at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) in the Department of Neurology and the Center for Neurodegeneration and Experimental Therapeutics. As a dedicated neuroimmunologist, Dr. Harms studies the cellular and immunological mechanisms underlying the initiation and progression of alpha-synucleinopathy disorders, with emphasis on antigen presentation. Utilizing novel genetic and viral model approaches to study the role of immune cell subsets, her lab focuses on how the protein alpha-synuclein contributes to microglial activation, peripheral immune cell infiltration, and subsequent activation of the immune response in Parkinson’s disease and multiple system atrophy.
Jacquelyn Haytayan, BSc
Jackie quickly identified an astute interest in research methods while studying at The University of Vermont. She conducted undergraduate research, which was awarded sponsorship by her university. Her studies brought her towards an interest in molecular biology, pharmacology, and neuroscience. This lead her to a position as lab manager for Dr. Kaplitt's research team, investigating gene therapy treatments for Parkinsons disease. While she confidently maintains organization within the lab, she has branched out into the research methods of her fellow lab members, determined to invest herself in the data being produced.
Tom Hnasko, PhD
Tom Hnasko, PhD, earned a BS in pharmacology and toxicology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a PhD in neurobiology and behavior from the University of Washington. He was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of California, San Francisco. In 2012 he joined the Department of Neurosciences at the University of California, San Diego, where he is currently Associate Professor. His lab uses mouse genetics and, molecular and physiological tools to study mesolimbic and basal ganglia neural circuits that guide volitional behavior. A major focus is the study of diverse cell types and circuits in the ventral midbrain, including the substantia nigra and ventral tegmental area, with a special focus on neurotransmitter co-release and on how changes in these circuits contribute to neuropsychiatric diseases including addiction and Parkinson’s disease.
Michael Kaplitt, MD, PhD
Michael G. Kaplitt, MD, PhD, is Professor and Vice-Chair for Research in the Department of Neurological Surgery at Weill Cornell Medicine. He received a PhD in molecular neurobiology from The Rockefeller University and an MD from Cornell University Medical College. An international leader in gene therapy and functional neurosurgery for neurodegenerative disorders, he first described using adeno-associated virus in the mammalian brain in 1994., In 2003, he performed the first human gene therapy for Parkinson’s disease (PD)., and Dr. Kaplitt has also performed the first gene therapy for a genetic form of Parkinson’s disease and first induced pluripotent stem cell transplant for Parkinson’s disease, among many other translational innovations. His lab research focuses upon using gene therapy to better understand and treat unmet needs in PD and other neuropsychiatric disorders. His many honors and awards include elected membership in the American Society for Clinical Investigation and the Society for Neurological Surgeon
Ann Kennedy, PhD
Ann Kennedy, PhD, is a theoretical neuroscientist at Scripps Research in San Diego. She is broadly interested in the neural control of complex and naturalistic behavior, and her research has focused on the use of methods from machine learning, dynamical systems, and control theory to characterize the structure of animal behavior and its control by the brain. She completed postdoctoral training with Dr. David Anderson at California Institute of Technology, where she modeled hypothalamic control of social and fear behaviors. Prior to that, she pursued her PhD at Columbia University with Dr. Larry Abbott, where she modelled information representation and learning in cerebellum-like structures.
Agnete Kirkeby, PhD
Agnete Kirkeby is an Associate Professor and group leader at the Novo Nordisk Foundation for Stem Cell Medicine (reNEW) at University of Copenhagen (Denmark) and at the Wallenberg Center for Molecular Medicine at Lund University (Sweden). The Kirkeby group has unique expertise in xenotransplantation and in using human pluripotent stem cells for production of subtype-specific human neurons, including also high-purity cultures of ventral midbrain dopamine neurons. This work has led to a European-based development of a stem cell treatment for Parkinson’s Disease (STEM-PD), which entered clinical trial in 2022 in Sweden (https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT05635409). The group further produces various other different types of neurons and glial cells for use in regenerative therapy and disease modelling, and also studies early brain development using human stem cell and advanced microfluidic culturing techniques to model the developing human fetal neural tube.
Ken Marek, MD
Ken is Distinguished Scientist at the Institute for Neurodegenerative Disorders (IND). He serves as a special scientific advisor to The Michael J. Fox Foundation. He has served in leadership roles in several organizations focused on neurodegenerative disorders and has been the recipient of numerous grants to support his work in Parkinson disease, Alzheimer Disease and Huntington disease. He has been awarded the Robert A. Pritzker Prize for Leadership in Parkinson's Research. He graduated from Yale University School of Medicine and was trained at the Institute for Neurology, London and Johns Hopkins University in neuroscience and neurology. He was a co-founder of IND and Molecular NeuroImaging, LLC.
Roberta Marongiu, PhD
Roberta Marongiu, PhD, is Assistant Professor of Neuroscience in Neurological Surgery at Weill Cornell Medicine. She received her PhD in medical genetics and neuroscience from the Sapienza University of Rome and the University of California, San Diego. She then completed her postdoctoral studies in neuroscience with focus on viral-vector- mediated gene therapies for Parkinson’s disease (PD) at Weill Cornell Medical College. Her research contributions to Parkinson’s disease include the identification of the first PINK1 pathogenic mutations; evidence of a direct link between mitochondria, autophagy, and the pathogenesis of Parkinson’s; and the identification of the p11 gene as first potential target for treating both PD motor symptoms and dyskinesia. As a young investigator using novel genetic, viral, and animal model approaches, her current research focuses on the identification of the molecular mechanisms underlying the role of sex and menopause on brain disorders, including Parkinson’s disease and Alzheimer’s disease.
Sarkis Mazmanian
Sarkis Mazmanian, Ph.D. is the Luis & Nelly Soux Professor of Microbiology in the Division of Biology & Biological Engineering at Caltech, in Pasadena CA. His laboratory pioneered the concept that studying the gut microbiome may lead to novel concepts in drug development for certain immunologic and neurological diseases, work that has resulted in several ongoing clinical trials. Dr. Mazmanian has enjoyed numerous honors including the MacArthur Foundation “Genius” award. Most importantly, He has trained many students and fellows who have gone on to successful independent careers in science, medicine and industry.
Kalpana Merchant, PhD
Kalpana Merchant, PhD, is a neurobiologist and translational neuroscientist who has led and contributed to the discovery and development of drugs for neurological and psychiatric disorders at start-ups and international pharmaceutical companies for nearly 30 years. She is an Adjunct Professor of Neurology at Northwestern University, a senior advisor to the Michael J Fox Foundation, serves on the Oregon Innovation Council and several advisory boards at the National Institutes of Health. She is the founder President of TransThera Consulting Co., which provides strategic and scientific guidance on drug discovery and translational strategies to biotech/start-up pharmaceutical companies. Kalpana received her PhD in neuropharmacology from the University of Utah, completed postdoctoral training at University of Washington and was Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at University of Washington before transitioning to pharmaceutical research in 1993 at the Upjohn Co followed by Eli Lilly and Co.
Brit Mollenhauer, MD
Brit Mollenhauer, MD, is a physician-scientist and Professor at the University Medical Center Göttingen (UMG). She is head of Translational Science at the Movement Disorders Center of the Paracelsus-Elena-Klinik, Kassel, Germany. She completed neurology training at UMG and a postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard Medical School, Boston. She has developed a translational research program focusing on biomarker development for early and prodromal diagnosis, for the progression of Parkinson’s disease (PD), and related deep phenotyping. Dr. Mollenhauer has launched several observational cohorts, including the De Novo PD (DeNoPa) cohort based in Kassel to better understand the natural history of PD and variants of manifest disease as well as their prodromal stages. Her interdisciplinary research program spans the pathophysiology, epidemiology, and deep phenotyping of PD. Dr. Mollenhauer has received several awards and also serves on the Executive Scientific Advisory Board of the Parkinson’s Progression Markers Initiative from the Michael J. Fox Foundation.
Loukia Parisiadou, PhD
Loukia Parisiadou, PhD, has focused her studies on the cellular and molecular pathophysiology of Parkinson’s disease (PD). She completed her postdoctoral training in Dr. Andy Singleton’s laboratory at the National Institute on Aging. Loukia Parisiadou joined a few years after the laboratory showed that mutations in the LRRK2 gene cause PD. This sparked her scientific interest in determining the physiological functions of the coded protein in the mammalian brain and the molecular mechanism(s) through which disease-associated variants in the LRRK2 gene induce neuronal dysfunction. Over the last 14 years, her efforts to study the LRRK2 related PD provided novel insights into the undetermined role of LRRK2 kinase. It also led to the generation of several mouse models and conceptual advances of the molecular basis of PD. Using a multidisciplinary approach, the Parisiadou laboratory at Northwestern University studies the neuronal cell-type-specific dysfunctions in PD supported by the NINDS and The Michael J. Fox Foundation grants.
