Studies what happens in the brain with Parkinson’s disease

"An important goal of my research is also to develop new imaging markers in order to improve diagnostics and therapeutic evaluation. We have, for instance, developed and validated a tracer able to measure how the dopamine-producing cells degenerate and we’re evaluating another tracer that can be used to study how synaptic function changes in the Parkinson’s brain. We’re also trying to understand the role inflammation plays in the disease.”

Why is this important?

“In Parkinson’s disease, early diagnosis and the ability to distinguish it from other Parkinson’s-like diseases are important. This is where these imaging markers come in. They can also be used to measure the effect of treatments, such as during clinical trials of new drugs.”

What are your main findings to date?

“Apart from the development of the tracers, we’ve been able to demonstrate that it’s the terminals of the dopamine producing cells, the synapses, that degrade first, while nerve fibres and cell bodies remain relatively intact. This implies that we should be able to slow down or modify the disease course at early stages of the disease by restoring synaptic function."