Non-Motor Symptoms: Unraveling the "Invisible" Face of Parkinson’s Disease

Speakers

Organizers

Nathalie Breysse, PhD

Lundbeck Research, USA

Nathalie Breysse is a Neuroscientist who received her PhD in France at University of Luminy. Her studies were related to the functional involvement of metabotropic glutamate receptors within the basal ganglia circuitry in normal and pathological conditions. Nathalie’s original research gave rise to manuscripts on the potential of mGluR5 receptors as a therapeutic target in treating Parkinson’s disease. Nathalie then joined the Wallenberg Neuroscience Center (Lund, Sweden) as post-doctoral fellow under Prof. Anders Bjorklund’s mentorship. The work conducted was focused on the use of cell- and gene therapy in the treatment of Parkinson’s disease. In the last ten years, Nathalie has worked in the pharmaceutical industry, NPS Pharmaceuticals (Canada), Wyeth/Pfizer (USA) and Lundbeck (USA and Denmark), in drug discovery and development programs related to neuropsychiatric as well as neurodegenerative disorders. Nathalie’s is currently global Parkinson’s Disease therapeutic biology lead at Lundbeck.

Elena Dale, PhD

Lundbeck Research, USA

Elena Dale received her PhD from New York University Medical School under the supervision of Dr. Rodolfo Llinas. Her graduate work focused on studying ensemble properties of neuronal activity in the cerebellum and thalamo-cortical systems using imaging and electrophysiology techniques. After completing her PhD, Elena did postdoctoral training in the laboratory of Dr. Ottavio Arancio at Columbia University where she investigated the role of post-translational modifications in the regulation of synaptic plasticity. Elena joined Lundbeck Research USA in 2009 where she established an in vitro electrophysiology laboratory. She is currently a Senior Research Scientist working on several drug discovery projects related to depression, pain and Parkinson’s Disease.

Sonya Dougal, PhD

The New York Academy of Sciences

Speakers

Erwan Bezard, PhD

University of Bordeaux

Bezard, INSERM Research Director, has authored or co-authored over 195 professional publications in the field of neurobiology, most of which are on Parkinson's disease and related disorders. Listed in the Top 1% of the most cited neuroscientists (H factor=47; Source: Scopus), he is known for his work (i) on the compensatory mechanisms that mask the progression of Parkinson's disease, (ii) on the pathophysiology of levodopa-induced dyskinesia and (iii) on the mechanisms of neurodegeneration in synucleopathies. His current research interests include the study of the levodopa-induced dyskinesia, the intimate mechanisms of cell death in Parkinson’s disease, the modelling of disease progression and the development of new strategies to alleviate symptoms and/or to slow disease progression. Bezard is the director of a CNRS research unit located in Bordeaux, the Institute of Neurodegenerative Diseases, which features preclinical and clinical researchers working towards development of therapeutic solutions. He is also a Visiting Professor at the China Academy of Medical Sciences (Beijing, China) where he has set-up and manages a non-human primate facility dedicated to Movement Disorders. He serves on the board of international organizations such as the Michael J. Fox Foundation and Parkinson’s UK. He is Associate Editor of Neurobiology of Disease, a leading journal in the field. He serves on the editorial boards of several other neurobiology journals. Besides consulting for several drug companies in the field of movement disorders, he is a non-executive director of Plenitudes Sarl (France) and Chief Scientific Officer of Motac Neuroscience (UK).

Patrik Brundin, MD, PhD

Van Andel Institute

Since 2012, Dr. Patrik Brundin is the Director of the Center for Neurodegenerative Science and the inaugural holder of the Jay Van Andel Endowed Chair in Parkinson Research at the Van Andel Research Institute, Grand Rapids, Michigan, USA. Dr. Brundin is an internationally renowned expert in the field of Parkinson’s and neurodegenerative disease research with a career in this area that spans over 30 years, including key involvement in some of the first clinical neural transplantation trials. He obtained his M.D. (1992) and Ph.D. (1988) at Lund University in Sweden where he was Professor of Neuroscience in 2000-2014. He has published over 300 papers, coordinated several multidisciplinary research networks specializing in Parkinson’s research and was identified as a ISI Highly Cited Scientist in his area. His main current research interests are the alpha-synuclein prion-like hypothesis, drug repurposing and development of disease-modifying therapies in Parkinson's disease. He is co-Editor-in-chief of the Journal of Parkinson’s Disease.

Marie-Francoise Chesselet, MD, PhD

UCLA

Marie-Françoise Chesselet is the Charles H. Markham Professor of Neurology, Distinguished Professor in the Departments of Neurology and Neurobiology, and Interim Chair of the Department of Neurology at UCLA. After receiving the M.D. and Ph.D. degrees in Paris, France, she held research positions in France and faculty positions at the Medical College of Pennsylvania and the University of Pennsylvania, before joining UCLA in 1996. At UCLA, Dr. Chesselet chaired the Department of Neurobiology from 2002 to 2013 and is currently the Director of the Integrative Center for Neural Repair, which includes the Center for the Study of Parkinson’s Disease at UCLA she created in 1998. She has directed the NINDS-funded UCLA UDALL Center for Parkinson’s disease research from 1998 to 2013, the NIEHS-funded UCLA Center for Gene Environment in Parkinson’s Disease from 2002 to 2014, and the UCLA Advanced Center for Parkinson’s Disease Research of the American Parkinson Disease Association since 1998. Dr. Chesselet has directed graduate programs at the University of Pennsylvania and UCLA and has directed the NINDS-funded Training Program in Neural Repair from 1998 to 2014. Her laboratory conducts research on the molecular mechanisms of disorders of the basal ganglia and new treatments for Parkinson’s and Huntington’s diseases. Her work has been extensively supported by the NIH, the Michael J. Fox Foundation, Cure HD Initiative, and several bio pharmaceutical companies. She currently holds grants from the Department of Defense, CIRM, and Tsumura Inc. Dr. Chesselet is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and currently chairs its section on Neuroscience. She just completed a 4 years term on the National Advisory Environmental Health Sciences Council.

Diane G. Cook

Parkinson's Disease Foundation

Diane Cook is a management consultant and community leaders who focuses on leadership development and training.  Since being diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease (PD) in 2008, Diane has been an active member of the local, national and international Parkinson’s community. She has founded and facilitated 4 support groups for over 175 newly diagnosed Parkinson’s patients in the Denver area and has pioneered the application of self-efficacy skills to Parkinson’s disease management, in part as the result of a research study sponsored by the Colorado Neurological Institute. Diane serves on the Advisory Board of the University of Colorado Movement Disorders Center, on the People with Parkinson’s Advisory Council of the Parkinson’s Disease Foundation (PDF) and as an active Research Advocate.  Diane is also a Patient Representative to the FDA and has just been elected to the Steering Committee of the Clinical Trials Transformation Initiative.

Maurizio Facheris, MD

The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research

Maurizio Facheris earned his Medical Degree from the University of Brescia, Italy and his specialization in Neurology from the University of Milano-Bicocca, Milano, Italy. His thesis work focused on the role of lipid peroxidation and oxidative stress in neurodegenerative disorders. He then completed a master’s degree in Clinical Research at the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine in Rochester, MN, deepening his knowledge in the genetic epidemiology of Parkinson’s disease. Upon returning to Italy, Dr. Facheris worked both as a consultant for the movement disorders outpatients’ clinic at the Central Hospital of Bolzano, Italy, and as senior researcher at the Center for Biomedicine at EURAC, Bolzano, Italy, where he was in charge of the scientific coordination of a broad population-based prospective epidemiological study. Through his work both at the hospital and the research institute, Dr. Facheris earned a broad understanding of all aspects of clinical research. Dr. Facheris joined the Michael J. fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research in 2011 as. As Senior Associate Director, Research Programs, Maurizio stays closely linked to the Parkinson's research community in order to develop an aggressive and innovative agenda for accelerating research and drug development for Parkinson's disease. Regularly meeting with academic and industry researchers around the world to identify promising proposals to support, providing troubleshooting and ongoing management of projects as they go forward, Dr. Facheris oversees the symptomatic strategies at the Foundation, the scientific program for the clinical portfolio, and the clinical activities related to LRRK2, a major genetic form of parkinsonism.

Horacio Kaufmann, MD

NYU Langone Medical Center

Horacio Kaufmann, MD is Professor of Neurology and Medicine at New York University. He holds the Axelrod Chair for dysautonomia research and directs the Dysautonomia Center. Dr. Kaufmann received his medical degree from the National University of Buenos Aires in Argentina. He completed his Neurology residency and fellowship at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York. He is board certified in neurology and autonomic disorders. His research has focused on the function of the autonomic nervous system and its abnormalities in neurological disorders. He has been funded by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the National Institute of Health, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the Dana Foundation and the Dysautonomia Foundation, Inc.  Dr. Kaufmann published the first complete autopsy findings in patients with pure autonomic failure, establishing this disorder as a synucleinopathy related to Parkinson disease. He described the vestibular sympathetic reflex in humans as a feed forward mechanism that helps maintain blood pressure during movement. Recently, he defined the autonomic phenotype of Riley Day syndrome as a developmental disorder of the afferent neurons of the baroreceptor reflex. He was the principal investigator in the largest multinational clinical trials using norepinephrine precursor therapy as a treatment for neurogenic orthostatic hypotension. Dr. Kaufmann serves as the Editor-in-Chief of Clinical Autonomic Research. He lives in New York City with his wife, Lucy and his children, George, age 8, and Dolores, age 4.

Shirley Lasch, MBA

The Parkinson’s Progression Markers Initiative (PPMI)

Shirley Lasch is a Senior Director of Project Management at the Institute for Neurodegenerative Disorders (IND); Molecular NeuroImaging, LLC (MNI) located in New Haven CT. Shirley is responsible for managing multiple studies focused on the identification of biomarkers for early detection, the assessment of disease progression and the development of new treatments for Parkinson disease and other related neurodegenerative disorders. As Global Project Manager of the Parkinson’s Progression Marker Initiative (PPMI) since 2010, Shirley has closely supported the leadership in the implantation of this multicenter, longitudinal PD biomarker study. Prior to joining IND and MNI Shirley worked in the pharmaceutical industry at Bayer Healthcare Pharmaceuticals as well as the Bristol-Myers Squibb Pharmaceutical Research Institute in the area of drug discovery, and translational medicine. Severing in several roles including Research Investigator, Shirley has proposed, launched and managed numerous research projects. Regarding Educational background, Shirley has received her MBA from Quinnipiac University after earning her Bachelor of Science in biology from Eastern Connecticut State University.

Olivier Rascol, MD, PhD

University of Toulouse

Doctor Olivier Rascol is Professor of Clinical Pharmacology at the Toulouse University Hospital since 1993. He obtained his MD in Neurology (Toulouse, 1985) and his PhD in Neurosciences (Paris, 1992). Dr Rascol is running the Toulouse Clinical Investigation Centre since 1994 and the Toulouse European Space Clinic since 1998. He is also running a Research Group on Motricity in the Research Unit INSERM U825 and is the coordinator of the French Reference Center for Multiple System Atrophy (Atypical Parkinsonism). Dr Rascol is the chair of the national network of the 56 French Clinical Investigation Centers since 2008 and the chair of the NS-Park Neurosciences Network of the French CIC since 2010. From 2011, Dr Rascol is now coordinating the National French Clinical Research Infrastructure Network F-CRIN.

Anna Sauerbier, MD

NPF International Centre of Excellence, Kings College London

Dr. Anna Sauerbier is a clinical research fellow at the National Parkinson Foundation  International Centre of Excellence, King’s College Hospital, London having received her medical degree from the Justus-Liebig University in Gießen, Germany. Her research interests are the non- motor aspects of movement disorders (clinical and imaging), with a focus on the impact of ethnicity on the expression of non-motor symptoms in Parkinson’s disease. She has published several peer-reviewed papers and book chapters and has presented at international meetings. She is currently working on her PhD project titled: “Range and nature of non-motor symptoms in people with Parkinson's: exploring possible ethnic differences between white Caucasian, black African/Caribbean and South Asian population in London, UK.” at King’s College London. She is the treasurer of the European Association of Young Neurologists and Trainees (EAYNT), an associate member of the International Parkinson and Movement Disorder Society (IPMDS) as well as one of the coordinators of the IPMDS Non-Motor PD Study Group (NM-PD-SG).

Eric Sweet, PhD

Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai

Eric Sweet is a Postdocotoral Fellow in the labs of Dr. Zhenyu Yue and Dr. Robert Blitzer. He obtained his PhD from Rutgers University studying the role of large scaffolding proteins in dendrite branching. He is interested in exploring the changes in cellular function that occur in the non-motor areas of the brain during the progression of Parkinson’s disease. At Mount Sinai his work focuses on the role of LRRK2 in the hippocampus and its impact on neuronal function using BAC transgenic mice.

Daniel Weintraub, MD

University of Pennsylvania

Dr. Weintraub is Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Neurology at the University of Pennsylvania and Psychiatrist at the Parkinson’s Disease Research, Education and Clinical Center (PADRECC) at the Philadelphia Veterans Affairs Medical Center.  A board-certified geriatric psychiatrist, he conducts clinical research in the psychiatric and cognitive complications of Parkinson’s disease (PD) and Alzheimer's disease.  He completed a NIMH Career Development Award related to depression in Parkinson’s disease, and has also been Principal Investigator on grants from the VA, the Institute of Aging at Penn, the Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research, and several industry-sponsored studies, as well as Principal Investigator on the Clinical Core of the Penn Udall Center focused on cognitive impairment in PD.  His research has primarily focused on the epidemiology, neural substrate, assessment and treatment of depression, psychosis, cognitive impairment and impulse control disorders in PD.  He also is Associate Editor of Movement Disorders Journal.