MGH/MIT MORRIS UDALL CENTER OF EXCELLENCE IN PD RESEARCH

描述(由申请人提供)： 麻省理工学院/麻省理工学院莫里斯·尤德尔PD研究卓越中心正在采取广泛、协作和互动的方法来研究帕金森氏症。这些项目涉及以下关键问题：多巴胺神经元的选择性脆弱性、路易小体形成和α-突触核蛋白聚集的机制和后果、帕金森病和突触核蛋白病理对神经系统的影响以及改变这种病理的分子方法。这些问题将使用一系列系统来探索，从酵母遗传学到哺乳动物细胞培养，再到啮齿动物模型到人类尸检材料。该中心结合了最先进的技术，包括高通量酵母基因筛查来确定突触核蛋白聚集和毒性的修饰因子，病毒载体基因转移来研究哺乳动物细胞培养和啮齿动物模型中的因素，多单元四极管记录来研究纹状体的可塑性，荧光寿命成像来研究蛋白质与蛋白质的相互作用，以及激光捕获显微切割和基因阵列来研究转录失调。该中心拥有一个临床和培训核心，为帕金森氏症患者提供护理，收集有关该疾病的临床特征和治疗反应的数据，为神经病理学研究募集大脑捐赠，并培训杰出的临床科学家成为该领域的未来领导者。该中心还拥有一个生物信息学核心，用于整合和分析跨项目的数据，并促进信息的共享。行政核心负责该中心的管理，并促进调查人员和尤德尔中心联合体的其他组成部分之间的信息、想法和试剂的共享。麻省理工学院/麻省理工学院研究中心的研究人员致力于一项合作和互动研究的计划，这将导致帕金森氏症患者的更好治疗。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The MGH/MIT Morris Udall Center of Excellence in PD Research is taking a broad, collaborative and interactive approach to the study of Parkinson's disease. The Projects address critical questions concerning the selective vulnerability of dopamine neurons, the mechanism and consequences of Lewy body formation and alpha-synuclein aggregation, the neural systems consequences of parkinsonism and synuclein pathology, and molecular approaches for modifying this pathology. These issues will be explored using a range of systems, from yeast genetics, to mammalian cell culture, to rodent models to human postmortem material. The Center incorporates state-of-the-art technologies including high throughput yeast genetic screens to identify modifiers of synuclein aggregation and toxicity, viral vector gene transfer to study factors in mammalian cell culture and rodent models, multi-unit tetrode recordings to study striatal plasticity, fluorescence lifetime imaging to study protein-protein interactions, and laser capture microdissection and gene arrays to study transcriptional dysregulation. The Center has a Clinical and Training Core that provides care to patients with Parkinson's disease, gathers data on clinical features of the disease and response to therapy, solicits brain donations for neuropathological study, and trains outstanding clinician scientists to be future leaders in the field. The Center also has a Bioinformatics Core that serves to integrate and analyze data across the projects, and facilitate sharing of the information. The Administrative Core is charged with management of the Center and facilitating the sharing of information, ideas, and reagents among the investigators and with other components of the Udall Centers consortium. The investigators of the MGH/MIT Center are dedicated to a program of collaborative and interactive studies which will lead to better treatments for people with Parkinson's disease.