Dr. Gilbert Hosts: Exciting Impact of APDA Research

Dr. Gilbert Hosts: Exciting Impact of APDA Research with Clemens Scherzer, MD, Sunil Kumar, PhD, and Giulietta M. Riboldi, MD, PhD

In this session of Dr. Gilbert Hosts, special guests Clemens Scherzer, MD, Sunil Kumar, PhD, and Giulietta M. Riboldi, MD, PhD, discussed the exciting impact of APDA research and answered audience questions live.

Watch the broadcast now on APDA’s YouTube Channel and be sure to subscribe to the APDA YouTube channel for more informative and important resources for Parkinson’s disease.

About Our Guests

DR. SUNIL KUMAR Sunil Kumar, PhD, is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry and the Knoebel Institute for Healthy Aging at The University of Denver. He received his PhD at Clemson University in South Carolina, where the focus of his research was the design and synthesis of novel aminoglycosides to target various forms of nucleic acids. He did postdoctoral fellowships in the labs of Dr. Andrew D. Miranker at Yale University and Dr. Andrew D. Hamilton at New York University. In his postdoctoral training, he utilized synthetic protein mimetic-based approaches to investigate the structure and function of various amyloid proteins. The central theme of his lab is the design of tools – synthetic, biophysical, and in vivo – to gain mechanistic and therapeutic insights into various diseases, including Parkinson’s disease. DR. GIULIETTA RIBOLDI Giulietta M. Riboldi, MD, PhD, is an Assistant Professor at the Marlene and Paolo Fresco Institute at NYU, affiliated faculty in the Department of Genetics and Genomics at NYU, the Director of Clinical Research and Genetics Movement Division at the Fresco Institute (NYU), and the Executive Director of The Marlene and Paolo Fresco Institute for Parkinson’s and Movement Disorders. She completed her MD and PhD, as well as her Residency in Neurology at the University of Milan, Italy and a research fellowship at the Motor Neuron Center at Columbia University, New York. She joined NYU in 2017 as a Marlene and Paolo Fresco Institute Fellow in Movement Disorders and subsequently joined as faculty in the Movement Disorder Division, where she recently started a Movement Disorders Genetics clinic. Her research leverages genetics and genomics to understand the pathogenic mechanisms of Parkinson’s disease and other genetic movement disorders through the identification of new gene variants and integrated genomic analysis of patient-derived tissue. DR. CLEMENS SCHERZER Clemens Scherzer, MD, is the Stephen & Denise Adams Professor of Neurology, and Professor of Genetics and Neuroscience at Yale School of Medicine. He is the Founding Director of the Stephen & Denise Adams Center for Parkinson’s Disease Research of Yale School of Medicine, an inter-departmental center building the future of precision medicine for Parkinson’s through genomics and AI, and the Director of the American Parkinson Disease Association (APDA) Center for Advanced Research at Yale School of Medicine. In his clinical practice, he is the Academic Chief of the Division of Movement Disorders and directs the Yale Harvard Biomarkers Study (YHBS). Prior to joining Yale in 2024, Scherzer was Professor of Neurology at Harvard Medical School, where he led the Neurogenomics Lab (2003-2023), founded the APDA Center for Advanced Research (2018-2023), and developed the inter-divisional Brigham & Women’s Hospital Precision Neurology Program (2017-2023). Dr. Scherzer completed his neurology residency at Emory University and received the Dr. Paul Beeson Award and APDA’s Dr. George C. Cotzias Memorial Fellowship. He served on the Parkinson Vision Setting Panel of the U.S. Department of Defense, is on the Steering Committee of the NINDS Parkinson’s Disease Biomarkers Program, and is a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of APDA.