October 30, 2003

New center focuses on Parkinson’s Disease

$5.5M award funds Udall Center for research

By Elizabeth Crown

Northwestern has received a $5.5 million award from the National Institute for Neurological Diseases and Stroke to establish a Morris K. Udall Center of Excellence for Parkinson’s Disease Research.

The center, which will focus on the pathophysiological mechanisms underlying the motor and cognitive symptoms of Parkinson’s disease, will be headed by D. James Surmeier, Nathan Smith Davis Professor and chair of physiology at the Feinberg School of Medicine.

Parkinson’s disease is a common neurodegenerative disorder associated with aging. Symptoms include tremor, slowness of movement, rigidity and postural instability. Although several brain regions are affected in Parkinson’s disease, the most devastating effects are in the basal ganglia, a group of brain structures linked to control of movement and learning.

The central goal of the Udall Center is to determine how neural activity in basal ganglia circuits is altered in Parkinson’s disease, with the goal of developing new therapies to normalize this activity and alleviate the symptoms of the disease.

The center’s research program employs state-of-the-art electrophysiological, optical and computational approaches to understand the pathophysiology of the basal ganglia regions most intimately linked to the symptoms of Parkinson’s disease — the globus pallidus and subthalamic nucleus. Current neurosurgical treatment strategies for later stage Parkinson’s disease patients target these regions, most commonly with deep brain stimulation.

The Northwestern Udall Center has four project teams and a molecular biology core facility. Surmeier directs one of the project teams studying neurons found in the globus pallidus. Mark Bevan, associate professor of physiology, heads a team studying neurons found in the subthalamic nucleus.

The Parkinson’s Disease Research Centers of Excellence program was developed in honor of former Congressman Morris K. Udall, who died in 1998 after a long battle with Parkinson’s disease.

Northwestern is the 12th Udall Center in the United States.