The National Institute for Neurological Disease and Stroke has awarded a Morris K. Udall Center of Excellence for Parkinson's Disease Research to UCLA under the direction of Marie-Françoise Chesselet, M.D., Ph.D. UCLA has the distinction of being named the only Udall Center of Excellence west of the Mississippi. (UCLA research on Parkinson's disease is also supported through its funding as an Advanced Center for Parkinson's Disease Research by the American Parkinson's Disease Association as well as individual research awards.)

Parkinson's disease is a neurodegenerative condition caused by the death of neurons in the brain responsible for manufacturing a key neurotransmitter called dopamine. Although important advances have been made, current treatments have limitations and do not prevent the progressive worsening of the disease as neurons continue to die.

The NIH-supported Udall Center is part of a large multidisciplinary effort in which scientists, clinicians and neurosurgeons team together at UCLA to advance treatment and therapies for Parkinson's disease. The Center is seeking to understand the long-term effects of the loss of dopaminergic neurons and of the current treatments for Parkinson's disease in order to improve therapeutic approaches.

In the Udall Center, scientists at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA collaborate with bioengineers at the UCLA School of Engineering to develop microscopic stimulators that can be placed in deep brain structures to modify brain activity as a means of controlling abnormal movements.

Only about ten percent of patients inherit Parkinson's disease. Researchers at UCLA seek to understand if some patients may carry "susceptibility genes" that interact with environmental toxins to cause this degenerative condition in order to develop new strategies for treatment. Research is also performed on the role stem cells may play in new therapies for Parkinson's disease as well as how deep brain stimulation and growth factors may protect dopaminergic cells. In coordination with the Ahmanson/Lovelace Brain Mapping Center at UCLA, scientists are using functionally-activated brain MRI scans to discover and localize abnormal activity of Parkinson's patients during learning. Clinical trials with pharmacological therapeutic agents are also being conducted at UCLA to determine if these drugs can improve cognitive and behavioral functions of Parkinson's disease patients.

The Center uses an integrated multidisciplinary approach to elucidate the effects of nigrostraital lesions and treatment of Parkinson’s disease on the molecular and cellular characteristics of the subthalamic nucleus. This region of the basal ganglia has recently emerged as an important focus for the development of novel therapeutic strategies for the disease. One goal of the Center is to identify new molecular targets of non-invasive pharmacological treatments of Parkinson’s disease.

Interactions between the Center and clinical investigators in the Movement Disorders Program at UCLA provide an ideal conduit for the rapid translation of research findings into clinical applications. The Center provides a dynamic training environment that expands the research capabilities of scientists at all career levels and also their trainees. The Center facilitates the participation of new investigators across the UCLA campus in research on Parkinson’s disease and reinforces the existing interactions between basic and clinical research on Parkinson’s disease at UCLA.