An update on the quest for genetic determinants in Parkinson's Disease and related disorders

Vincenzo Bonifati, MD, PhD, holds a Chair in Genetics of Movement Disorders at the Erasmus University Medical Center, Rotterdam. His lab, at the Dept. of Clinical Genetics, searches for novel genes involved in Parkinson’s disease and related disorders, in order to illuminate the disease mechanisms and provide new targets for disease-modifying interventions. In the past few years, he described several genes causing inherited forms of parkinsonism, dystonia, and other movement disorders, including PARK7 (DJ-1), PARK15 (FBXO7), PARK20 (SYNJ1), and SLC30A10 (manganese transporter), and more recently his team reported LRP10 variants associated with familial forms of PD and Lewy Body Dementia.