About the Research Spotlight 2022
The WPC Research Spotlight series in 2022 has seven outstanding scientists from four countries lined up to talk about a wide range of very exciting research they are overseeing in their laboratories.
Interviewer: Roger Barker, BA, MBBS, PhD, MRCP, FMedSci
WPC Vice President and Board member
Professor of Clinical Neuroscience and Honorary Consultant in Neurology at the University of Cambridge and at Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge UK. He trained at Oxford and London and has been in his current position for over 20 years having completed an MRC Clinician Scientist Fellowship just prior to this. Read his full bio.
PAST Events
SPOTLIGHT #1 Took place January 19, 2022
Watch conversation
WPC Blog post: Prodromal PD and RBD – what’s the link?
Research Spotlight on Professor Ron Postuma, MD, MSc
Researcher: Dr. Postuma is Professor of Neurology at McGill University. He graduated with his Medical Degree from the University of Manitoba, completed a Neurology fellowship at McGill University, a Movement Disorders research fellowship at the University of Toronto, and a Masters in Epidemiology at McGill. He is a clinical movement disorders specialist, with a research interest mainly centered around non-motor aspects of Parkinson's disease. Main areas of interest include early detection of PD, diagnosis and treatment of sleep disorders including REM sleep behavior disorder, diagnosis and diagnostic criteria for PD, and clinical trials in the early stages of PD.
SPOTLIGHT #2 Took Place March 24, 2022
WPC Blog post: Genetics and PD – what does it all mean?
Research Spotlight on Professor Andrew Singleton, PhD
Watch conversation
Researcher: Dr. Singleton received his B.Sc. from the University of Sunderland, UK and his Ph.D. from the University of Newcastle upon Tyne, UK. His postdoctoral studies were spent at the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville Florida. Andrew moved to the National Institute on Aging at NIH in 2001. In 2007 he became a tenured senior investigator at the National Institute on Aging, in 2008 he was named the Chief of the Laboratory of Neurogenetics, and in 2016 he was honored as an NIH Distinguished Investigator. In 2021 he became the first Director of the Center for Alzheimer’s and related dementias at NIH.
SPOTLIGHT #3 Took Place Wednesday, May 25, 2022
WPC Blog post: Stem cells for treating PD – hope or hype?
Watch now
Research Spotlight on Malin Parmar, PhD and Agnete Kirkeby, PhD
Researchers: Dr. Parmar is a professor in cellular neuroscience at Lund University in Sweden and a New York Stem Cell Foundation – Robertson investigator. Together with her lab she has shown in a series of high-profile publications how human fibroblasts can be converted into neurons, how glial cells can be reprogrammed into neurons in vivo, and how functional dopamine neurons can be generated from human embryonic stem cells. She is the recipient of an ERC starting grant and an ERC Consolidator grant. Her research has a strong translational focus, she leads the European effort STEM-PD, designed to bring stem cell-derived dopamine neurons to clinical trials, and she collaborates within European and International networks as well as Industry partners to develop new, cell-based therapies for Brain Repair with focus on Parkinson’s Disease.
Dr. Kirkeby is an Associate Professor at University of Copenhagen in Denmark and University of Lund in Sweden. She is performing stem cell research and studies of human neural development
SPOTLIGHT #4 took place on Tuesday July 12, 2022
WPC Blog post: Modeling Parkinson’s Disease In Animals: Is It Worthwhile?
Watch conversation
Research Spotlight on Kelvin C Luk, PhD MTR
Researcher: Dr. Luk received his BSc (Microbiology and Immunology) and PhD (Pathology) from McGill University, Canada. He completed his postdoctoral training at the University of Pennsylvania and obtained a Masters in Translational Research from Penn in 2013. He is currently Research Associate Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and member of the Penn Center for Neurodegenerative Disease Research. Dr. Luk’s research aims to untangle the relationship between the formation of alpha-synuclein pathology (i.e., Lewy bodies) that characterizes Parkinson’s disease (PD) and related disorders, as well as its contribution to neuron dysfunction and degeneration. Using multidisciplinary approaches including in vitro, cell-based, and in vivo models, his team interrogates the mechanisms by which this protein misfolds into self-propagating pathological agents capable of transmitting from cell-to-cell. The group has developed several novel cell- and animal-based models of disease that are used in the field and are leveraging this knowledgebase towards developing innovative tools for the detecting neurodegeneration-related proteins and to evaluate potential new therapies for PD.
SPOTLIGHT #5 Took place on September 13, 2022
WPC Blog post: Drug repurposing for PD - does it work
Watch conversation
Researcher: Dr. Stott is the Deputy Director of Research at Cure Parkinson's. The organization is an international supporter of both lab- and clinic-based research on disease modification in Parkinson's. Originally from New Zealand, Simon has over 15 years of experience in the field of Parkinson's research - in both the academic and biotech industry sector. He has been involved in lab-based research as well as clinical studies, with a number of scientific publications. He also maintains the 'Science of Parkinson's' website, which attempts to explain in plain English the research currently being conducted on Parkinson's.
SPOTLIGHT #6 Took place on November 15, 2022 WPC Blog post: If Cellular Aging Is A Key Part Of Parkinson’s Disease Pathogenesis, How Do We Model It?
Watch conversation
Researcher: Dr. Drouin-Ouellet obtained her PhD in Neurobiology at Laval University in 2012. She completed her postdoctoral training with Roger Barker at the University of Cambridge, and Malin Parmar at Lund University where she worked on developing efficient methods for direct neuronal conversion of dermal fibroblasts from patients with neurodegenerative diseases. She is now pursuing this work as an independent group leader at the University of Montreal. Her group focuses on further developing direct neural reprogramming methods and exploring their potential to provide patient-specific based systems that faithfully recapitulates disease-associated phenotypes of Parkinson’s disease.
The WPC Research Spotlight series in 2022 has seven outstanding scientists from four countries lined up to talk about a wide range of very exciting research they are overseeing in their laboratories.
Interviewer: Roger Barker, BA, MBBS, PhD, MRCP, FMedSci
WPC Vice President and Board member
Professor of Clinical Neuroscience and Honorary Consultant in Neurology at the University of Cambridge and at Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge UK. He trained at Oxford and London and has been in his current position for over 20 years having completed an MRC Clinician Scientist Fellowship just prior to this. Read his full bio.
PAST Events
SPOTLIGHT #1 Took place January 19, 2022
Watch conversation
WPC Blog post: Prodromal PD and RBD – what’s the link?
Research Spotlight on Professor Ron Postuma, MD, MSc
Researcher: Dr. Postuma is Professor of Neurology at McGill University. He graduated with his Medical Degree from the University of Manitoba, completed a Neurology fellowship at McGill University, a Movement Disorders research fellowship at the University of Toronto, and a Masters in Epidemiology at McGill. He is a clinical movement disorders specialist, with a research interest mainly centered around non-motor aspects of Parkinson's disease. Main areas of interest include early detection of PD, diagnosis and treatment of sleep disorders including REM sleep behavior disorder, diagnosis and diagnostic criteria for PD, and clinical trials in the early stages of PD.
SPOTLIGHT #2 Took Place March 24, 2022
WPC Blog post: Genetics and PD – what does it all mean?
Research Spotlight on Professor Andrew Singleton, PhD
Watch conversation
Researcher: Dr. Singleton received his B.Sc. from the University of Sunderland, UK and his Ph.D. from the University of Newcastle upon Tyne, UK. His postdoctoral studies were spent at the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville Florida. Andrew moved to the National Institute on Aging at NIH in 2001. In 2007 he became a tenured senior investigator at the National Institute on Aging, in 2008 he was named the Chief of the Laboratory of Neurogenetics, and in 2016 he was honored as an NIH Distinguished Investigator. In 2021 he became the first Director of the Center for Alzheimer’s and related dementias at NIH.
SPOTLIGHT #3 Took Place Wednesday, May 25, 2022
WPC Blog post: Stem cells for treating PD – hope or hype?
Watch now
Research Spotlight on Malin Parmar, PhD and Agnete Kirkeby, PhD
Researchers: Dr. Parmar is a professor in cellular neuroscience at Lund University in Sweden and a New York Stem Cell Foundation – Robertson investigator. Together with her lab she has shown in a series of high-profile publications how human fibroblasts can be converted into neurons, how glial cells can be reprogrammed into neurons in vivo, and how functional dopamine neurons can be generated from human embryonic stem cells. She is the recipient of an ERC starting grant and an ERC Consolidator grant. Her research has a strong translational focus, she leads the European effort STEM-PD, designed to bring stem cell-derived dopamine neurons to clinical trials, and she collaborates within European and International networks as well as Industry partners to develop new, cell-based therapies for Brain Repair with focus on Parkinson’s Disease.
Dr. Kirkeby is an Associate Professor at University of Copenhagen in Denmark and University of Lund in Sweden. She is performing stem cell research and studies of human neural development
SPOTLIGHT #4 took place on Tuesday July 12, 2022
WPC Blog post: Modeling Parkinson’s Disease In Animals: Is It Worthwhile?
Watch conversation
Research Spotlight on Kelvin C Luk, PhD MTR
Researcher: Dr. Luk received his BSc (Microbiology and Immunology) and PhD (Pathology) from McGill University, Canada. He completed his postdoctoral training at the University of Pennsylvania and obtained a Masters in Translational Research from Penn in 2013. He is currently Research Associate Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and member of the Penn Center for Neurodegenerative Disease Research. Dr. Luk’s research aims to untangle the relationship between the formation of alpha-synuclein pathology (i.e., Lewy bodies) that characterizes Parkinson’s disease (PD) and related disorders, as well as its contribution to neuron dysfunction and degeneration. Using multidisciplinary approaches including in vitro, cell-based, and in vivo models, his team interrogates the mechanisms by which this protein misfolds into self-propagating pathological agents capable of transmitting from cell-to-cell. The group has developed several novel cell- and animal-based models of disease that are used in the field and are leveraging this knowledgebase towards developing innovative tools for the detecting neurodegeneration-related proteins and to evaluate potential new therapies for PD.
SPOTLIGHT #5 Took place on September 13, 2022
WPC Blog post: Drug repurposing for PD - does it work
Watch conversation
Researcher: Dr. Stott is the Deputy Director of Research at Cure Parkinson's. The organization is an international supporter of both lab- and clinic-based research on disease modification in Parkinson's. Originally from New Zealand, Simon has over 15 years of experience in the field of Parkinson's research - in both the academic and biotech industry sector. He has been involved in lab-based research as well as clinical studies, with a number of scientific publications. He also maintains the 'Science of Parkinson's' website, which attempts to explain in plain English the research currently being conducted on Parkinson's.
SPOTLIGHT #6 Took place on November 15, 2022 WPC Blog post: If Cellular Aging Is A Key Part Of Parkinson’s Disease Pathogenesis, How Do We Model It?
Watch conversation
Researcher: Dr. Drouin-Ouellet obtained her PhD in Neurobiology at Laval University in 2012. She completed her postdoctoral training with Roger Barker at the University of Cambridge, and Malin Parmar at Lund University where she worked on developing efficient methods for direct neuronal conversion of dermal fibroblasts from patients with neurodegenerative diseases. She is now pursuing this work as an independent group leader at the University of Montreal. Her group focuses on further developing direct neural reprogramming methods and exploring their potential to provide patient-specific based systems that faithfully recapitulates disease-associated phenotypes of Parkinson’s disease.
Judi Spencer, WPC Choir Director, will be leading our sing-a-longs. To celebrate the global Parkinson's community, we will have a different co-host with Judi each month. If you are a muscian or part of a music group and would like to co-host a sing-a-long, contact Judi at judi4tulips@gmail.com
We will all be coming together virtually to raise our voices in song! Once you register, you are set for the series. We’ll send a reminder one week ahead of time as well as the morning of the sing-a-long. REGISTER HERE |
2023 Sing-A-Long Schedule:
Wednesday, April 12th Time: TBD Wednesday, April 26th Time: TBD https://www.worldpdcoalition.org/page/choir |