Interview - Searching for Biomarkers in Parkinson's Disease

Abstract

Clemens R Scherzer, MD, is Assistant Professor of Neurology at Harvard Medical School, an associate neurologist at Brigham and Women's Hospital, Co-director of the Harvard NeuroDiscovery Center Biomarker Study (HBS) and directs the Laboratory for Neurogenomics at the Center for Neurologic Diseases. His laboratory looks at a global view of gene activity in human Parkinson's disease to discover disease genes, drug targets and molecular biomarkers. It integrates large-scale clinical studies with genome-wide expression analysis and genetic validation in human and animal models of Parkinson's and other neurodegenerative diseases. Scherzer received the Paul B Beeson Award of the American Federation for Aging Research and the National Institute on Aging, and a Dr George Cotzias Memorial Award for the American Parkinson's Disease Association. He completed a neurology residency at Emory University and fellowship training in movement disorders and genomics at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School. In his clinical practice he serves as a movement disorders specialist at Brigham and Women's Hospital.