"Where Life Meets Parkinson's." A blog for Parkinson's education, research advances, treatment strategies, and personal reflection. The goal is to provide support and resources to anyone either with Parkinson's disease or with any neurodegenerative disorder.
“Science is organized knowledge. Wisdom is organized life.” Will Duran “The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds new discoveries, is not 'Eureka!' but 'That's funny...'” Isaac Asimov Introduction: The goal of this post is to highlight several experimental model systems that have effectively been used in Parkinson's research. We have …
Continue reading "Importance of Model Systems in Parkinson’s Research"
“Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known.” Carl Sagan “You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.” R. Buckminster Fuller Précis: Scientists at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill are using an innovative approach to treat Parkinson's in …
Continue reading "Neuroprotection by Modified-Macrophages in a Parkinson’s Model System"
“With Parkinson’s you have two choices: You can let it control you, or you can control it. And I’ve chosen to control it.” US Senator Isakson “Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow. The important thing is to not stop questioning.” Albert Einstein Introduction: In my academic career to-date, my research group and I …
Continue reading "Potential New Parkinson’s Drug Highlight: the Leukemia Drug Nilotinib"
“When prescribing one of the drugs I take, my doctor warned me of a common side effect: exaggerated, intensely vivid dreams. To be honest, I've never really noticed the difference. I've always dreamt big.” Michael J. Fox Parkinson's description: About 60,000 new Parkinson's cases will be diagnosed this year in the USA; joining the 1 …
Continue reading "Anti-malaria Drugs Target Nurr1 For Possible Parkinson’s Therapeutics"
"The question is not how to survive, but how to thrive with passion, compassion, humor and style." Maya Angelou "Hardships often prepare ordinary people for an extraordinary destiny." C.S. Lewis Précis: The goal is to present a brief synopsis of some of the neurodegenerative disorders, that is the easy part. The hard part is …
“Research is the process of going up alleys to see if they are blind.” Marston Bates “What we find changes who we become.” Peter Morville The reality of Parkinson's: Parkinson’s is a common neurodegenerative disorder. Approximately 60,000 new cases/year of Parkinson's occur in the USA, and they join ~1 million people living here with this …
"There is a single light of science, and to brighten it anywhere is to brighten it everywhere." Isaac Asimov "Do the difficult things while they are easy and do the great things while they are small. A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step." Lao Tzu Science and Parkinson's: As a …
“So many people walk around with a meaningless life. They seem half-asleep, even when they're busy doing things they think are important. This is because they're chasing the wrong things. The way you get meaning into your life is to devote yourself to loving others, devote yourself to your community around you, and devote yourself …
Continue reading "A Comparison of Parkinson’s to Alzheimer’s"
“When we least expect it, life sets us a challenge to test our courage and willingness to change; at such a moment, there is no point in pretending that nothing has happened or in saying that we are not yet ready. The challenge will not wait. Life does not look back.” Paulo Coelho What causes …
Continue reading "Immune System and Parkinson’s (Part 1): The Brain and Immune System are Connected"
"The measure of greatness in a scientific idea is the extent to which it stimulates thought and opens up new lines of research.” Paul A.M. Dirac Start of the story: Anyone with Parkinson's is hopeful for a cure in the future. Yet, there is much we still do not understand about this neurodegenerative disorder. Scientists and physicians …
Journey with Parkinson's 