Thanks to the inclusion of Åsa Mackenzie and Jacob Vogel as new research leaders, MultiPark increases its collective expertise in Parkinson’s disease and dementia. Taken together, their projects range from basic preclinical research at the neural circuit level to advanced analysis of neuroimaging and multi-omics in large clinical datasets. Here, they share their contributions and what joining MultiPark means to them.
What does being included as a MultiPark research leader mean to you?
Åsa: “I am so honored to be accepted as MultiPark research leader. This opens up doors to an incredibly competent and engaged research environment where I can interact with scientists to exchange ideas and techniques., Together, we can drive research on Parkinson´s disease (PD) and other neurological and neuropsychiatric disorders forward, with the goal to solve them and generally improve brain health. ”
Jacob: “Like most aspects of scientific research, solving neurodegenerative diseases will take group effort and collaboration. MultiPark forms a network of researchers with similar goals but complementary expertise and skills. I’m grateful to be part of this, which will help to connect me with other great minds here in Sweden, and I look forward to contributing a data science perspective.”
What do you consider to be your most essential contribution to MultiPark?
Åsa:” I have worked a lot with brain circuitry related to reward and aversion, in addition to motor circuits of the basal ganglia, primarily using transgenic mice. I believe that non-motor symptoms, such as low mood, lack of motivation, and depression, are linked to reward and aversion circuitries in a way that is not yet fully understood. Effects on mood and motivation have an important impact on the well-being, generally for everyone, but also in disorders primarily known as disorders of the motor system, such as PD. With my focus on spatially precise neuroanatomy and neurocircuitry analyses in the context of motion and emotion, I hope to contribute to aspects of research that complement MultiPark ‘s current focus areas.”
Jacob: ”Thanks to great research throughout the world, there are now a plethora of enormous datasets and biobanks, as well as new AI-based tools and methods. My group brings an expertise in the data-science skillsets needed to interface with these tools, analyze these datasets, and extract clinically and biologically meaningful knowledge from them. We are particularly well versed in the handling, processing and analysis of neuroimaging and multi-omic data.”
