We are building on what we know about the genetics of Parkinson's to understand the molecular mechanisms causing the disease. The genetic variations that predispose to developing Parkinson’s lead to changes in common biological pathways and processes in brain cells. We use unique approaches developed in Oxford to identify these pathways using human (patient) induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) lines of neurons and glial cells such as microglia and astrocytes. These provide insights into mechanisms of disease and also provide opportunities to identify non-neuronal therapeutic targets. Deep phenotyping of our rich resource of Parkinson's patient iPSC neurons generated by OPDC and our partner StemBANCC provides a direct route to target discovery assay.
