For the last several years this group has held regular meetings in the area with this purpose in mind: The mission is to help educate and provide emotional support to people with Parkinson’s disease, their families, and caregivers who live in and around Auburn, Opelika, East Alabama, and West Georgia. The regular monthly meetings are supplimented with a day long event each year bringing several specialist together for discussion. Dr. David Standaert of the UAB Department of Neuroliology will be the opening speaker for this years event, set for Saturday, February 8th from 8:30 AM to 2:30 PM.
Dr. David Standaert joined the UAB Department of Neurobiology on July 1, 2006, from the Department of Neurology at Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard Medical School as the John and Juanelle Strain Professor of Neurology and Director of the newly established Center for Neurodegeneration and Experimental Therapeutics and the Division of Movement Disorders.
Dr. Standaert’s laboratory is working on understanding both the root causes of Parkinson disease (PD) as well as the origin of the disabling symptoms that appear after long term treatment of the disease. The lab has a strong translational orientation – our goal is to accelerate the delivery of new therapies for Parkinson disease to the patients who desperately need them
A primary focus of the laboratory is understanding the role of the protein alpha-synuclein in PD pathophysiology, and searching for novel approaches for protecting the brain from the effects of excess alpha-synuclein. We use a variety of cellular and rodent models, and are exploring the effects of several chaperone molecules, including those derived from open-ended screens in simple non-mammalian systems.
Other Speakers and Topics include:
Laura Lieb, RN, Clinic Nurse Dept. of Neurology at UAB and APDA Nurse Coordinator discusses Optimizing Wellness with Parkinson’s – Be the Best That You Can Be
Muralikrishnan Dhanasekaran, Pharm., Ph.D., Associate Professor, School of Pharmacy – Auburn University discusses What you should know about PD medications
Kitty Frey, OTR, Occupational Therapist and Tai Chi Instructor discusses Exercise is Good Medicine; The Benefits of Exercise for Parkinson’s
To Register for or directions to the event click here for the groups website!
From the Archives — originally published on the Opelika Daily News on January 18, 2014. View the original page.
