The overall mission of our lab is to identify and understand the underlying mechanisms that contribute to cellular dysfunction and neurodegeneration in Huntington’s Disease and X-linked Dystonia Parkinsonism.
Huntington’s disease (HD) and X-linked Dystonia Parkinsonism (XDP/Lubag) are movement disorders that primarily affect the basal ganglia. The basal ganglia are critical for controlling movement. Presently there are no neuroprotective treatments available for these diseases. We have developed mouse genetic models expressing the known human mutated genes to study these diseases. For HD, we presently focus on the contribution of the astrocyte to Huntington’s disease pathogenesis..
