Grant: Project Grant

Parkinson's disease (PD) is an incurable disorder that affects brain cells, leading to disabling motor and non-motor symptoms. This neuronal loss is mainly due to the abnormal accumulation of a protein called alpha-synuclein in neurons. Despite decades of efforts, no curative treatment for this disease has been found. Faced with this limitation, our team proposes to tackle this problem using new technologies to identify new targets responsible for alpha-synuclein abnormal accumulation in the brain. Utilizing cutting-edge approaches, our team has identified a protein called WDR44 as a major promoter of alpha-synuclein aberrant accumulation in experimental models of PD. Motivated by these findings, we propose in this project to study how WDR44 enhances alpha-synuclein pathological behavior and evaluate the therapeutic potential of blocking this protein activity. Our ultimate goal is to develop effective treatments that can stop or at least slow the progression of PD.