Past OPDC Seminar Series
2024
January
"Gene therapy to study and treat Parkinson’s disease".
March
"Dissecting Parkinson's disease with long-read RNA-sequencing".
June
Professor Hélène Plun-Favreau (University College London)
"Mitophagy, from genetics to biology, and back".
Dr Tim Bartels (Dementia Research Institute at the University College London)
"Gut Macrophages Modulate Body-First Synucleinopathies."
July
Professor Steven. F. Lee (University of Cambridge)
"Imaging Oligomers of Alpha-Synuclein in Parkinson’s Disease".
2023
January
Dr. Daniela Berg, University Medical Center Schleswig-Holstein, Germany
"Prodromal PD-definition and impact for clinical studies".
February
Professor Malú Gámez Tansey, University of Florida, USA
"Inflammation and immune dysfunction in Parkinson’s disease: targeting the gut-brain axis to reduce risk and progression".
March
Professor Pascal Kaeser, Harvard Medical School, USA
"Mechanisms and Roles of Fast Dopamine Signaling".
April
Dr Ziv Gan-Or, McGill University, USA
"Genetics of synucleinopathies and how it informs us towards future clinical trials".
May
Professor Patrik Verstreken, Leuven Brain Institute, Belgium
"The cellular phase of Parkinson’s disease".
June
Dr Ted. M. Dawson, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, USA
"Beyond Alpha-Synuclein: Exploring the Diversity of Molecular Mechanisms Underlying Parkinson's Disease".
July
Dr Ole Tietz, Dementia Research Centre, Macquarie University, NSW, Australia
"Towards Intraneuronal Immunotherapy"
Professor Rejko Krüger, Luxembourg Institute of Health
"New stratification concepts for precision medicine in the diagnosis and treatment of Parkinson’s disease".
October
Dr Alexandra Nelson, Neurology University of California, San Francisco
"Striatal Circuitry in Parkinson's Disease and Levodopa-Induced Dyskinesia
November
Dr Patrick Lewis, Royal Veterinary College, London
"Exploring the crosstalk between familial and idiopathic Parkinson’s"
Professor Christos Proukakis, University College London
" Somatic mutations in the brain: do they have a role in synucleinopathies?"
December
Professor Poul Henning Jensen, Aarhus University, Denmark
"Rethinking Parkinson’s disease pathophysiology & how to model it with a focus on alpha-synuclein & cell autonomous processes"
2022
January
Professor Pietro De Camilli, Yale University School of Medicine, Kavli Institute for Neuroscience New Haven, USA
"Intracellular Membrane Lipid Dynamics and Neurodegenerative Diseases".
February
Professor Louis-Eric Trudeau, Faculty of Medicine Université de Montréal
"Making sense of the exuberant axonal connectivity of dopamine neurones".
May
Dr Nicole Calakos, Dept. of Neurology, Duke University, School of Medicine, USA
"A hidden regulator of neuromodulation and motor learning: Protein synthesis by the integrated stress response (ISR)".
Dr Kevin McFarthing, Research Advisor, Parkinson’s UK Oxford Branch
"The drug development landscape in Parkinson's".
June
Dr. Mark R. Cookson, Laboratory of Neurogenetics, National Institute on Aging (NIA), USA
"The role of LRRK2 in familial and sporadic Parkinson’s disease".
July
Dr Clemens Scherzer, Harvard Medical School, USA
"Cell circuits, progression genetics, and the quest to solve Parkinson’s with precision medicine".
October
Suzanne Pfeffer, Ph.D, Stanford University School of Medicine, USA
"LRRK2 kinase in Parkinson’s disease: from single molecule to the brain".
2021
January
Dr Wilma van de Berg, Amsterdam UMC
"Tales from the human brain: a multi-scale approach to elucidate pathogenic mechanisms involved in Parkinson’s"
February
Dr Emmanouil Metzakopian, UK Dementia Research Institute (UK DRI), University of Cambridge
"CRISPR-Cas9 genetic screens to ameliorate cellular stress in neurodegeneration"
March
Dr Nicolas Tritsch, Neuroscience Institute and Marlene & Paulo Fresco Institute for Parkinson’s & Movement Disorders, New York University
"Modulation of striatal circuits by midbrain dopamine neurons"
April
Dr Anne Grünewald, University of Luxembourg
“Mitochondrial DNA at the interface between mitochondrial dysfunction and inflammation in Parkinson’s disease”.
May
Dr Per Borghammer, Aarhus University, Denmark
"Body-first & Brain-first Parkinson's disease - explaining motor asymmetry, non-motor subtypes, and dementia".
June
Dr Olga Corti, Institut du Cerveau – Paris Brain Institute
“Mitophagy dysfunction in autosomal recessive Parkinson’s disease: is it the whole story?"
July
Dr Mark Howe, Boston University
“Sub-second Striatum Neuromodulatory Signaling on Multiple Spatial Scales During Learning and Action”.
September
Professor David Rubinsztein, University of Cambridge
“Autophagy and neurodegeneration".
October
Dr Sreeganga Chandra, Yale School of Medicine
“Synaptic Vesicle Endocytosis and Parkinson’s disease”.
November
Dr Michael Henderson, Van Andel Institute
“Modulators of pathology progression in neurodegenerative disease”.
December
Professor Konstantinos Meletis, Dept. of Neuroscience, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden
“Molecular and functional organization of the mouse striatum".
2020
Download 2020 Seminar Series Brochure
January
Matthew LaVoie, Brigham and Women's Hospital & Harvard Medical School
"Proteostasis and Mitochondrial Pathways in the Pathogenesis and Treatment of Parkinson’s Disease"
February
Michael Ward, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS)
"Combining iPSCs and ‘omics to identify molecular convergence in neurodegenerative disorders"
March
Hélène Plun-Favreau, UCL Institute of Neurology
"Mitophagy: from genetics to biology, and back"
April
Daniel Otzen, Interdisciplinary Nanoscience Center (iNANO), Aarhus University
"Targeting cytotoxic alpha-synuclein oligomers in Parkinson’s Disease"
May
Vincenzo Bonifati, Erasmus University Medical Center, Rotterdam
"An update on the quest for genetic determinants in Parkinson’s Disease & related diseases"
June
Tim Bartels, UK Dementia Research Institute (DRI), University College London (UCL)
"Selective brain region vulnerability in Parkinson’s Disease is governed by α-Synuclein conformations"
July
Madeline Lancaster, MRC, Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge
"Exploring human brain structure and function using cerebral organoids"
September
Jacqueline Burré, Brain and Mind Research Institute at Weill Cornell Medicine, USA
"Function and Dysfunction of Synucleins – Membranes Matter"
October
D. James Surmeier, Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University, USA
"Time to revise the classical model of basal ganglia dysfunction in PD: New insights from a novel, progressive mouse of mitochondrial complex I dysfunction"
November
Valina Dawson, John Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland, USA
"Decoding Parkinson’s Disease: New Therapeutic Opportunities"
December
Richard Youle, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS), National Institutes of Health (NIH), Bethesda, Maryland, USA
"Mechanisms of Innate Immunity and Parkinson’s Disease"
2019
Download 2019 Seminar Series Brochure
February
Elisa Greggio, Department of Biology, University of Padova
"Molecular pathways to Parkinson's disease: more than neurons?"
March
UCL School of Pharmacy, "LRRK2 Mediated Cellular Function from Vesicular Trafficking to Gene Expression"
April
Darren Moore, Center for Neurodegenerative Science, Van Andel Research Institute
"Pathway to Parkinson’s Disease: A Tale of Two Genes"
May
Mart Saarma, University of Helsinki
"Unconventional Endoplasmic Reticulum Located Trophic Factor for Parkinson’s Disease"
June
Sonia Gandhi, UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology
"The toxic consequences of protein aggregation in Parkinson's disease"
July
Austen Milnerwood, The Neuro, McGill University
"The Quest for Neuroprotection in Parkinson’s disease: reversing synaptic dysfunction"
Esther Sammler, University of Dundee
"Interrogating LRRK2 kinase pathway in human bio-samples in Parkinson’s disease"
September
Michael Coleman, Department of Clinical Neurosciences, University of Cambridge
"Mechanisms of axon degeneration in injury and disease"
October
Paolo Calabresi, University of Perugia, Italy
"Striatal synaptic dysfunction in Parkinson's disease"
Ellen Sidransky, National Human Genome Research Institute, NIH
"The magic in the web of it: How a rare disorder is helping to untangle the mysteries of Parkinson’s disease"
November
Evrando Fei Fang, University of Oslo
"NAD+ and Mitophagy in Brain Ageing and Neurodegenerative Disorders"
Jerome Baufreton, Laboratory of Synaptic and Cellular Dynamics of Neuronal Networks, The Neuroscience Institute at Bordeaux
"Synaptic alterations in the indirect-pathway of the basal ganglia in experimental Parkinsonism"
2018
Download 2018 Seminar Series Brochure
January
Gary Miller, Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University
"Parkinson's disease: environmental clues and transporter blues"
Pierre-Herve Luppi, Centre de Recherche en Neurosciences de Lyon
"REM Sleep Behaviour Disorder: from circuits to pathology"
Emily Osterweil, Edinburgh University
"Cell type-specific translation profiling in fragile X"
February
Malú Tansey, Emory University School of Medicine
"Immune and inflammatory mechanisms underlying risk for age-related neurodegenerative disease"
March
Stéphane Palfi, Mondor Biomedical Research Institute
"Gene therapies for Parkinson's disease"
April
Andy West, University of Alabama at Birmingham
"Achieving Neuroprotection in Parkinson’s Disease"
May
Vladyslav Vyazovskiy, Department of Physiology, Anatomy and Genetics, University of Oxford
"Local and global facets of sleep regulation"
June
Hélène Plun-Favreau, UCL Institute of Neurology
"Mitophagy modulation as a potential therapeutic target for neurodegenerative diseases"
September
Barbara Picconi, Lab Neurofisiologia Sperimentale, Università Telematica San Raffaele
November
Mina Ryten, Institute of Neurology, University College London
December
Sonja Scholz, Neurodegenerative Diseases Research Unit, NIND, NIH
2017
Download 2017 Seminar Series Brochure
January
Professor Olaf Horst, Rieß Institute of Medical Genetics and Applied Genomics, University of Tübingen
February
Dr Kostas Vekrellis, Biomedical Research Foundation Academy Of Athens
April
Professor Beate Ritz, School of Public Health at UCLA
May
Professor Hilal Lashuel, Brain Mind Institute. Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne
Professor Omar El-Agnaf, Qatar Biomedical Research Institute
June
Professor Steven Finkbeiner, Gladstone Institute of Neurological Disease/UCSF
July
Dr Michela Deleidi, Hertie Institute,University of Tübingen
August
Dr Kathleen Maguire-Zeiss, Georgetown University
September
Dr Mattia Volta, European Academy of Bolzano/Bozen (EURAC)
November
Dr Brit Mollenhauer, University Medical Center, Goettingen
December
Donato Di Monte, German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE)
2016
Download 2016 Seminar Series Brochure
January
Professor Dario Alessi, MRC Protein Phosphorylation and Ubiquitylation Unit, University of Dundee
February
Professor Miquel Vila, Vall d’Hebron Research Institute (Barcelona)
March
Professor Malin Parmar, Developmental and Regenerative Neurobiology, Wallenberg Neuroscience Center, Lund University (Sweden)
April
Professor Robert Edwards, Department of Neurology, Graduate Program in Biomedical Sciences, University of California, (San Francisco)
May
Dr Valerio Zerbi, Department of Health Sciences and Technology ETH Zurich (Switzerland)
June
Professor Jia-Yi Li, Neural Plasticity and Repair group, Department of Experimental Medical Science, Lund University (Sweden)
July
Dr Mark Cooper, UK Parkinson’s Disease Consortium, UCL Institute of Neurology, University College London
September
Professor John Reynolds, Brain Research New Zealand/Dept of Anatomy, University of Otago Medical School
October
Dr Alastair Noyce, Institute of Neurology, University College London
November
Mickael Decressac, Telethon Institute of Genetics and Medicine (TIGEM), Pozzuoli, Italy
December
Professor Nick Allen, School of Biosciences, University of Cardiff
2015
Download 2015 Seminar Series Brochure
January
Professor Rejko Krueger, University of Luxembourg
"Patient-based cellular models and stratified treatment options for Parkinson’s disease"
February
Professor Gilberto Fisone, Karolinska Institute
"Targeting abnormal signalling in experimental Parkinsonism and L-DOPA-induced dyskinesia"
Professor Alice Chen-Plotkin, University of Pennsylvania
"Unbiased Approaches to Parkinson's Disease Biomarker Discovery"
May
Professor Steven Gill, North Bristol NHS Trust, University of Bristol
"GDNF: Back to the Clinic"
November
Professor Giovanna Mallucci, University of Cambridge
"Neurodegeneration: molecules to medicines"
2014
Download 2014 Seminar Series Brochure
January
Dr Max Little, Aston University
"Detecting Parkinson’s by voice analysis"
March
Professor Anthony Schapira, Institute of Neurology, University College London
"Glucocerebrosidase in Parkinson disease: insights into aetiology and potential therapies"
June
Dr Sabine Hilfiker, Institute of Parasitology and biomedicine
"Unravelling the pathogenic roles of LRRK2 in Parkinson’s disease"
July
Professor Thomas Gasser, University of Tübingen
"Genetic architecture of Parkinson’s disease"
September
Dr Patrick Lewis, Reading University
"Understanding LRRK2 – from cellular function to human disease"
October
Professor Ralph Nixon, New York University School of Medicine/Nathan Kline Institute
"Lysosomes: the Achille's heel of neurons in neurodegenerative disease"
November
Professor Paola Piccini, Imperial College London
"Pre- and post-synaptic mechanisms in L-dopa-induced dyskinesia: evidence from functional imaging"
December
Professor Matt Farrer, University of British Columbia
"Parkinsonism: etiology, pathogenesis and pathology from a genetic perspective"
2013
Download 2013 Seminar Series Brochure
January
Professor David Brooks, Department of Medicine, Imperial College London
"Functional Imaging in Parkinson’s Disease"
February
Professor Nicholas Wood, Institute of Neurology, University College London
"Genetics of Parkinson’s disease: implications for functional follow up"
March
Dr Edward Fon, Montreal Neurological Institute, McGill University
"Function of Parkinson's Disease Genes in Mitochondrial Quality Control"
Professor Christine Klein, Department of Neurology, University of Luebeck
"Modeling genetic and idiopathic Parkinson's disease with induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cell-derived neurons"
April
Dr Erwan Bezard, Institut des Maladies Neurodégénératives, Université Victor Segalen Bordeaux 2
"Peculiar behavior of D1 dopamine receptor in 1-dopa induced dyskinesia"
May
Dr Nin Bajaj, National Parkinson Foundation Centre of Excellence in Parkinson’s Disease, University of Nottingham
"3T and 7T MRI studies in Parkinson’s disease: some recent advances"
June
Professor David Sulzer, Departments of Neurology and Psychiatry, Columbia University Medical Centre
"The dopamine synapse in normal function and disease"
July
Dr Antonio Pisani, Department of Neuroscience, University of Rome Tor Vergata
"Relevance of the striatal cholinergic system in basal ganglia function and dysfunction"
October
Dr Kelvin Luk, Center for Neurodegenerative Disease Research, University of Pennsylvania
"Propagation of misfolded alpha-synuclein: implications for Parkinson’s disease"
November
Dr Manju Kurian, Institute of Child Health, University College London
"Dopamine Dyshomeostasis in Childhood Neurological Syndromes"
December
Professor Ole Isacson, Harvard Medical School, Center for Neuroregeneration Research, McLean Hospital
"Rethinking Parkinson’s disease science and regenerative treatments"
2012
Download 2012 Seminar Series Brochure
January
Professor Tamas Revesz, University College London
"Progression of neuropathology in Parkinson’s Disease"
February
Dr Oliver Bandmann, Sheffield Institute of Translational Neuroscience, University of Sheffield
"New strategies to identify disease – modifying treatment for Parkinson’s Disease"
March
Dr Huaibin Cai, National Institute on Ageing, NIH, USA
"Molecular determinants of dopaminergic neuron loss in Parkinson’s Disease"
April
Dr Kostas Vekrellis, Biomedical Research Foundation, Athens, Greece
"In vivo assessment of alpha-synuclein secretion. Possible therapeutic implications in Parkinson’s Disease"
May
Dr Clive Svendsen, Cedars-Sinai Regenerative Medicine Institute, Los Angeles, USA
'“Disease in a dish”: A new era for modelling human neurological disorders with stem cells'
June
Professor Birgit Liss, Institute of Applied Physiology, University of Ulm, Germany
"Distinct functions and fates of dopamine midbrain neurons in health and Parkinson's Disease - a tale of two ion channels?"
July
Dr Tiago Outeiro, Cell and Molecular Neuroscience Unit, Faculdade de Medicina de Lisboa, Portugal
"From the baker to the bedside: unraveling the molecular basis of Parkinson’s Disease"
September
Professor Kevin Morgan, Faculty of Medicine & Health Sciences, University of Nottingham
"Biomarker discovery in Alzheimer's disease-myth or reality?"
October
Professor Uwe Walter, Department of Neurology, University of Rostock
"Value of transcranial sonography in the diagnosis and treatment of Parkinson's disease"
Dr Tilo Kunath, Centre for Regenerative Medicine, University of Edinburgh
"Modelling synucleinopathies with human pluripotent stem cells"
November
Professor Masud Husain, Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurology and Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford
"Inattention, Impulsivity and Apathy in Parkinson's disease"
December
Dr Nick Allen, School of Biosciences, Cardiff University
"Stem cell-derived neuronal models to study Huntington's disease"
Professor Ola Söderberg, Department of Immunology, Genetics and Pathology, Uppsala University
"Analysis of signaling network activity at a single cell level"
2011
Download 2011 Seminar Series Brochure
January
Professor Tipu Aziz, Oxford Functional Neurosurgery, University of Oxford
"Pedunculopontine nucleus stimulation for the treatment of drug resistant freezing and falls in Parkinson’s Disease"
February
Dr Maeve Caldwell, School of Clinical Sciences, University of Bristol
"Stem cell therapy for Parkinson’s Disease, lessons from the developing brain"
March
Professor Paul Matthews, GSK Clinical Imaging Centre, Imperial College, London
"The Challenge of Imaging Neurodegeneration in Parkinson’s Disease"
Professor Howard Federoff, Georgetown University Medical Center
"Systems Neuromedicine & Parkinson’s Disease"
May
Professor Margaret Rice, Department of Neurosurgery, New York University School of Medicine
"How H2O 2 mediates and modulates neurotransmission in the basal ganglia"
June
Alex Green, Oxford Functional Neurosurgery
"Pendunculopontine nucleus stimulation for the treatment of drug resistant freezing and falls in Parkinson’s Disease"
July
Professor Yoav Ben-Shlomo, Department of Social Medicine, University of Bristol
"Epidemiological insights into the understanding of Parkinson’s Disease"
September
Professor Alfred Goldberg, Department of Cell Biology, Harvard University
"Functions of the Proteasome: from clearing misfolded proteins to cancer therapy"
October
Dr Vania Broccoli, Stem Cells and Neurogenesis Unit, San Raffaele Scientific Institute, Milan
"Generating iDA neuronal cells by direct reprogramming of mouse and human fibroblasts without pluripotent cell intermediates"
November
Dr Roger Barker, Department of Clinical Neurosciences, University of Cambridge
"The Hetrogeneity of Parkinson’s Disease – its basis and therapeutic implications"
Professor John Hardy, Department of Neurology, Reta Lila Weston Institute of Neurological Studies
"Genetic anaylsis of neurodegeneration"
2010
Download 2010 Seminar Series Brochure
May
Professor Patrik Brundin, Lund University, Sweden
June
Professor Julie Williams, Department of Psychological Medicine and Neurology, Cardiff University School of Medicine
"Defining the Genetic Architecture of Alzheimer's Disease"
July
Dr Huw Morris, Department of Psychological Medicine and Neurology, Cardiff University School of Medicine
"Clinical and Genetic Analysis of Early Onset Parkinson's Disease"
September
Dr Andrew Singleton, National Institute on Aging, NIH, USA
"Identifying and Understanding the Genetic Basis of Parkinson’s Disease"
October
Professor Steve Dunnett, Cardiff School of Biosciences, Cardiff University Functional Mechanisms of Repair and Recovery by Ventral Mesencephalic Tansplants in the Striatum
November
Professor Robin Franklin, Cambridge Centre for Brain Repair, University of Cambridge CNS remyelination: from biology to therapy
December
Professor David Burn, Clinical Ageing Research Unit, Newcastle University Dementia in Parkinson’s Disease: What’s new?