Lay Summaries

The Morris K. Udall Centers of Excellence for Parkinson’s Disease Research (Udall Centers) fund basic, translational, and clinical research on Parkinson’s disease.  The primary goal of the Udall Centers program is to develop new clinical treatments for Parkinson's disease.  However, it is well recognized that because there is so much that we do not understand about the causes of Parkinson’s disease, basic science is a key component of the overall effort to develop clinical treatments.

The Udall Centers are an important part of the National Institutes of Health’s (NIH) Parkinson’s disease research portfolio, and an important element of PAN’s advocacy work.  To help the Parkinson’s community better understand the research currently being conducted by the Udall Centers, we have asked the fourteen Udall Center Directors to provide PAN with lay language descriptions of their research and an explanation of how this research might lead to a better understanding of Parkinson’s disease.

Brigham and Women's Hospital
Boston, Massachusetts
Director: Peter Lansbury, Jr., Ph.D.   
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Columbia University
New York City, New York
Director: Robert Burke, M.D   
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Harvard University/McLean Hospital
Belmont, Massachusetts
Director: Ole Isacson, M.D.   
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Johns Hopkins University
Baltimore, Maryland
Director: Ted M. Dawson, M.D., Ph.D.   
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Massachusetts General Hospital/Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MGH/MIT)
Boston, Massachusetts
Director: Anne Young, M.D., Ph.D.   
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Mayo Clinic
Jacksonville, Florida
Director: Dennis W. Dickson, M.D.   
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University of Miami
Miami, Florida
Director:  Dr. Jeffery M. Vance   
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Northwestern University
Chicago, Illinois
Director: D. James Surmeier, Ph.D.   
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UCLA
Los Angeles, California
Director: Marie-Francoise S. Chesselet, M.D.   
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University of Cincinnati
Cincinatti, Ohio
Director: Timothy J. Collier, Ph.D.   
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University of Kentucky Medical Center
Lexington, Kentucky
Director: Greg A. Gerhardt, Ph.D.   
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University of Virginia
Charlottesville, Virginia
Director: G. Fred Wooten, M.D.   
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University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine
Philadelphia, PA.
Director: Dr. John Trojanowski, M.D., Ph.D.
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Associated Program
Parkinson's Disease - Data Organizing Center (PD-DOC)
University of Rochester
Rochester, NY
Dr. Roger Kurlan   
Lay Summary