Chaired by:
John Hardy, NIA

Balcony C, Natcher Conference Center

Parkinson's disease is the second most common neurodegenerative disorder afflicting about 500,000 Americans. Many, but not all of the clinical features are caused by loss of dopamine neurons from the substantial nigra. Until recently, the causes of the disease were not known, but over the last 7 years a series of genetic findings have revealed that point mutations in and locus multiplications of the alpha-synuclein gene are one cause of the disease in an autosomal dominant fashion and that recessive mutations in parkin, DJ-1 and PINK1 cause recessive parkinsonism. In this session, these discoveries will be in terms of the precise clinical syndrome, and the etiology of the "typical" form of the disease which shows no clear familial clustering. The possibility that all four of these genes map one specific pathway for cell death in the nigra will be critically discussed and the possible functions of the four genes described.

Program

The Clinical Syndrome
Katrina Gwinn Hardy, NINDS

The Genetics of PD
Andy Singleton, NIA

The Functions of Synuclein
Bob Nussbaum, NHGRI

Aggregation of Synuclein
Nelson Cole, NHGRI

The Functions of the Recessive Genes of Parkinsonism
Mark Cookson, NIA