Yoland Smith got his PhD in Neuroscience from Laval University (Quebec, Canada) in 1988. After postdoctoral trainings in Oxford and Johns Hopkins University, he became Assistant professor in the Department of Anatomy at Laval University. Since 1996, he holds a faculty position at the Yerkes Primate Center of Emory University (Atlanta, GA). He has published over 250 manuscripts on the anatomy of the basal ganglia and the pathophysiology of Parkinson’s disease. He is editor of prestigious journals in the field of Neuroscience, serve on NIH study sections and sit on the Advisory board of the Dystonia Medical Research Foundation. He is deeply involved in graduate education as principal investigator of various NIH training grants and previous director of the graduate neuroscience program at Emory University.

Parkinson's Disease,

Dr.Bhanu senior neurologist with 30 years experience wanting to teach basic bedside neurology and how the findings improve patient care

Dr Capildeo is a Consultant Neurologist who set up one of the first PD clinics in London, UK in 1973 at The Charing Cross Hospital where he also organised the first major International PD Symposium in 1979 when Sinemet Plus was first introduced by MSD (proceedings publication “Research Progress in PD, F Clifford Rose & R Capildeo, Pitman Medical). He was a senior investigator in the 5-year Sinemet CR First Trial (Neurology 1998, Jun; 50 (6 Suppl.6): S 15-17). A frequent presenter in National International meetings he continues his interest in PD in his work and in his role as a teacher.

Jagdish Sharma is a consultant physician in geriatric medicine at Lincoln county hospital and visiting professor at the University of Lincoln UK. He qualified in India and received specialist training in UK. He has clinical and research interests in Parkinson’s disease. His recent interests in research have been in the relationship between olfaction, body weight and dyskinesia in Parkinson’s disease describing a phenotype in Parkinson’s disease. He has published over 90 papers in peer reviewed journals. He has been an invited speaker in national and international conferences. In addition he has described relationship between cardiovascular disease and stroke outcome.

Professor Michael Ugrumov, academician of Russian Academy of Sciences has completed his MD at Institute of Evolutionary Physiology & Biochemistry (Leningrad), PhD at Institute of Developmental Biology, Professorship at University Medical School (Moscow). Head of Laboratory of Neural and Neuroendocrine Regulations at Institute of Developmental Biology RAS, Vice-President of Russian Physiological Society. Member of European Academy of Science and Arts, Serbian Academy of Science and Arts, French National Academy of Pharmacy. He has published more than 200 papers in peer reviewed journals and served as an editorial board member of 8 International and Russian journals. Expertise: Neuroscience and Neurotechnologies.

Parkinsons disease, Movement Disoders

Pant received his M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in Physics from Agra University, Agra, India. His postdoctoral studies were conducted on the mechanisms of electron and ion transport in model membrane systems at the Department of Biophysics at Michigan State University. He joined the Laboratory of Neurobiology in the NIMH as a senior staff fellow in 1974 with Dr. Ichiji Tasaki where he studied the function of the axonal cytoskeleton in the squid giant axon. In 1979 he moved to the NIAAA extending his studies on the neuronal cytoskeleton and the effects of alcohol on its regulation. Dr. Pant moved to the NINDS, Laboratory of Neurochemistry in 1987 where he is presently chief of the section on Cytoskeleton Regulation. His laboratory is studying the mechanisms of topographic regulation of neuronal cytoskeleton proteins by post-translational modification, including the role of kinase cascades in normal brain and during neurodegeneration.

Cytoskeleton Regulation, Parkinson's Disease, Alzheimer’s Diseases and Neurodegenerative disorders

Kjell Fuxe is a Professor of Histology, Karolinska Institutet. Since 2005 Professor emeritus Department of Neuroscience,Karolinska Institutet,Stockholm,Sweden. Member of Nobel assembly 1986-2005.Honorary Doctorates at the Universities of Barcelona, Ferrara, Malaga, at Université Claude Bernard, Lyon , at Marquis Guiseppe Scicluna International University Foundation and at the Albert Einstein International Academy Foundation. He has received a significant number of awards and published over 1500 papers in neuroscience. 1209 of them are found in Pubmed. His major achievements involve pioneering work on central monoamine neurons, the existence of volume transmission, receptor-receptor interactions in heteroreceptor complexes and in neuroendocrinology and neuropsychopharmacology

Parkinson's Disease, receptor-receptor interactions in heteroreceptor complexes

Dr. Adler's research can be divided into three main categories. He is first involved in leading the effort to clinically characterize a cohort of subjects enrolled in a brain donation program. This program involves annual clinical evaluation for movement disorders and cognitive function. It is performed at multiple institutions in the Phoenix area, including Mayo Clinic and Sun Health Research Institute. All subjects then donate their brains at the time of death. The research led by Dr. Adler includes investigating early signs (clinical biomarkers) for the development of Parkinson's disease and dementia in Parkinson's disease. Additionally, Dr. Adler collaborates with Dr. Thomas Beach, the neuropathologist at Sun Health Research Institute, as well as multiple laboratory-based scientists investigating the potential etiology for Parkinson's disease, dementia in Parkinson's disease, essential tremor, and restless legs syndrome. A second main feature of Dr. Adler's research program is the investigation of normal and abnormal movement in various disorders. This includes studying handwriting and other movements in patients with Parkinson's disease, as well as muscle movement in golfers with and without golfer's cramp (yips). The third area of research is Dr. Adler's investigations of new treatments for multiple movement disorders. This includes pharmaceutical trials as well as new treatments being studied by the NIH and single-site studies performed only at Mayo Clinic.

Parkinson's disease, Dementia

Jane Paulsen is a Chair in Neuroscience from Roy J. Carver, and Professor of Psychiatry, Neurology, Psychology. Her education is BS, Psychology with honours, Simpson College, Indianola, and completed IAMS, Psychology, from Columbia University, New York, NY. She did PhD in Counselling Psychology (APA accredited) from University of Iowa. She got Post Doctorate in Neuropsychology specialization in Alzheimer's disease from University of California, San Diego, and CA. Her Research Summary includes neural basis of cognition; preclinical deficits in dementia gene-carriers; frontal subcortical deficits, particularly Huntington's disease Research in this laboratory uses tools of neuropsychology and cognitive psychology to examine behavioral correlates of brain dysfunction. Topics of current interest include subtypes of Alzheimer's disease, preclinical cognitive deficits associated with gene-carriers of Huntington's disease and clinical/imaging correlates of cognitive measures. Functional MR and PET are used to examine frontal-striatal circuitry dysfunction in these disorders.

Alzheimer's disease, Huntington's disease , Parkinson's disease

He was involved in research about molecular mechanisms of Parkinson’s disease (PD) since 1989. He found decrease in the amount of complex I in the substantia nigra of PD patients. More recently, his collaborators and he identified the disease gene for an autosomal recessive form of young onset familial PD, and named the gene as “parkin”. This is the second form of familial PD in which the disease gene was identified. In addition, they found that the gene product, parkin was direct linked to ubiquitin- proteasome pathway as an ubiquitin ligase. This discovery suggested that protein degradation system was involved in the pathogenesis of not only monogenic form of PD but also sporadic PD. He has more than 300 peer-reviewed papers. Now he has been working hard for investigating and developing therapeutic methods not only for PD but other neurological diseases.

Parkinson's disease

Zoltan Mari, MD, is Assistant Professor of Neurology at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and the Director of the National Parkinson Foundation Center of Excellence at Hopkins. Dr Mari leads the Deep Brain Stimulation Program at Johns Hopkins Hospital and has been the Principal Investigator on multiple major NIH funded clinical trials on neuroprotection in Parkinson disease, including the NET-PD and QEIII trials (to investigate the possible disease modifying effect of creatine and Coenzyme Q10, respectively). Dr Mari sees the most Parkinson disease patients at Hopkins.

Deep Brain Stimulation, Parkinson's disease

George Stoica is a DVM, MSc and a PhD degree holder. He is a Professor in the Department of Veterinary Pathobiology at Texas A & M University, USA. He received his Master’s degree in Veterinary Pathology from Ohio State University and PhD in Experimental Pathobiology from Michigan State University. He has been with Texas A&M University since 1984 and was advanced to Full Professor in 1996. His area of expertise is in experimental neuropathology and his area of research span from chemical carcinogenesis, viral carcinogenesis, comparative neuro-oncology and neurodegenerative disorders in animal models. He published over 100 scientific articles in peer reviewed journals and wrote several chapters in various books.

Neurodegenerative disorders in animal models

Raymond Rosales is a Full Professor in the Department of Neurology and Psychiatry of the, University of Santo Tomas and Hospital, Metro Manila, Philippines. At the Metropolitan Medical Center, also in Manila, he is chief of Neurology, head of the Center for Neurodiagnostic and Therapeutic Services, and chair of the hospital’s Trials Institutional Review Board. He is likewise a staff of the Movement Disorders and Clinical Neurophysiology centers of St. Luke’s Medical Center, Quezon City. He obtained his Bachelor of Science and Medical degrees from the University of Santo Tomas, and a PhD in Neuroscience from the Kagoshima University Graduate School of Medicine, Japan. He has completed a number of fellowship programmes, including electrophysiology in neuromuscular and movement disorders at Kagoshima University Department of Neurology and Geriatrics and in the dystonia clinic at Columbia University, New York, USA. He was also a visiting professor in the movement disorders center of the University of Florida, Brain McKnight Institute

Movement Disorders

Pant received his M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in Physics from Agra University, Agra, India. His postdoctoral studies were conducted on the mechanisms of electron and ion transport in model membrane systems at the Department of Biophysics at Michigan State University. He joined the Laboratory of Neurobiology in the NIMH as a senior staff fellow in 1974 with Dr. Ichiji Tasaki where he studied the function of the axonal cytoskeleton in the squid giant axon. In 1979 he moved to the NIAAA extending his studies on the neuronal cytoskeleton and the effects of alcohol on its regulation. Dr. Pant moved to the NINDS, Laboratory of Neurochemistry in 1987 where he is presently chief of the section on Cytoskeleton Regulation. His laboratory is studying the mechanisms of topographic regulation of neuronal cytoskeleton proteins by post-translational modification, including the role of kinase cascades in normal brain and during neurodegeneration.

Cytoskeleton Regulation, Parkinson's Disease, Alzheimer’s Diseases and Neurodegenerative disorders