The research in the Movement Disorders Division is led by two clinician-scientists: Dr. Vikram (Vik) Khurana, the Chief of the Division, and Dr. Clemens Scherzer, the Associate Chief of the Division. These two physician-scientists also lead the Precision Neurology Program at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Current research efforts have a unified goal: to develop treatments for patients with degenerative movement disorders, including Parkinson’s disease, atypical Parkinsonian syndromes such as Multiple System Atrophy and Progressive Supranuclear Palsy, and Cerebellar Ataxias.
Benefitting from expertise in biological profiling, biospecimen banking and stem-cell biology, we seek to develop approaches to establish precise treatment options tailored to specific patients.
Laboratory research in the Division occurs in the setting of Laboratories and a number of Translational and Basic Science Initiatives that bring us together with multiple partnering laboratories at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School and beyond:
We collaborate with academic laboratories within the Ann Romney Center for Neurologic Diseases focused on Parkinson’s disease and related disorders, and also with industry. These collaborations help move our vision forward toward executing clinical trials in stratified, well-defined patient population.
A centerpiece of our research efforts includes the Harvard Biomarker Study that is currently enrolling patients with neurodegenerative disorders and healthy controls.
Dr. Michael D. Fox in the Division leads the cross-department Center for Brain Circuit Therapeutics that develops new treatments for patients with brain disease by directly targeting brain networks responsible for neurological and psychiatric symptoms.
| Initiatives | Lead Investigator | Co-Investigator |
|---|---|---|
| APDA Advanced Center for Parkinson’s Disease Research | Dr Clemens Scherzer | |
| Australian Parkinson Mission | Dr. Vikram Khurana | |
| Barbara Bloom Ranson Program in MSA Research | Dr. Vikram Khurana | |
| Brigham Research Institute Transformative Grant | Dr. Vikram Khurana | |
| BWH Udall Center of Excellence for Parkinson’s Disease | Dr. Jie Shen | |
| Functional Neurosurgery and Gene Therapy | Dr. Michael Hayes | Dr. Rees Cosgrove |
| Department of Defense: Gene-Environment Interactions in Parkinson’s Disease | Dr. Vikram Khurana | |
| Aligning Science Across Parkinson’s Initiative (1) | Dr. Vikram Khurana | |
| Aligning Science Across Parkinson’s Initiative (2) | Dr. Clemens Scherzer | |
| Ken Griffin/ Michael J. Fox Foundation Alpha-Synuclein Imaging MGH/BWH Collaboration | Dr. Vikram Khurana |
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