INFO:

Laurie H. Sanders, PhD, associate professor in neurology and pathology, conducts research on Parkinson’s disease. Her lab has developed a method, based on mitochondrial DNA damage, that can detect Parkinson’s disease in its early stages with a simple blood test. Her research has the potential not only to enable early diagnosis and intervention before significant neurological damage occurs, but also to help identify therapeutic targets to reverse or halt damaged mitochondrial DNA and the disease process. Parkinson’s disease, a progressive age-related brain disorder, afflicts 10 million people worldwide and is the second-most common neurodegenerative disease after Alzheimer’s.