The MGH/MIT Morris Udall Center of Excellence in PD Research is taking a broad, collaborative and interactive approach to the study of Parkinson's disease. The Projects address critical questions concerning the selective vulnerability of dopamine neurons, the mechanism and consequences of Lewy body formation and alpha-synuclein aggregation, the neural systems consequences of parkinsonism and synuclein pathology, and molecular approaches for modifying this pathology. These issues will be explored using a range of systems, from yeast genetics, to mammalian cell culture, to rodent models to human postmortem material. The Center incorporates state-of-the-art technologies including high throughput yeast genetic screens to identify modifiers of synuclein aggregation and toxicity, viral vector gene transfer to study factors in mammalian cell culture and rodent models, multi-unit tetrode recordings to study striatal plasticity, fluorescence lifetime imaging to study protein-protein interactions, and laser capture microdissection and gene arrays to study transcriptional dysregulation. The Center has a Clinical and Training Core that provides care to patients with Parkinson's disease, gathers data on clinical features of the disease and response to therapy, solicits brain donations for neuropathological study, and trains outstanding clinician scientists to be future leaders in the field. The Center also has a Bioinformatics Core that serves to integrate and analyze data across the projects, and facilitate sharing of the information. The Administrative Core is charged with management of the Center and facilitating the sharing of information, ideas, and reagents among the investigators and with other components of the Udall Centers consortium. The investigators of the MGH/MIT Center are dedicated to a program of collaborative and interactive studies which will lead to better treatments for people with Parkinson's disease.
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