Probably this webinar will only interest the handful of you researching the link between Parkinson's Disease and the Gaucher Disease gene, and perhaps those of you wanting to learn about biomarkers. (I imagine nearly all of the biomarker info will apply to those dealing with Lewy Body Dementia.)

The Parkinson's Disease Foundation is hosting next Tuesday another one of its excellent online seminars. You may join the webinar online or by phone. Here are the details:


The Parkinson’s Pipeline: Treating Your Parkinson’s
PD ExpertBriefing

Tuesday, April 12, 10-11am California time

Presenter: Michael Schlossmacher, M.D.
Dr. Schlossmacher is Associate Professor of Medicine (Neurology) in both the Departments of Cellular and Molecular Medicine at the University of Ottawa. He is also a practicing scientist within the neuroscience department at Ottawa Hospital Research Institute and an attending neurologist in the Division of Neurology at The Ottawa Hospital. Dr. Schlossmacher also serves as Canada Research Chair in Parkinson Disease (tier II).

Webinar Description: Each person experiences Parkinson’s differently. So why should we treat each person the same exact way? Dr. Schlossmacher will discuss new ways of looking at the pipeline of experimental treatments for Parkinson’s, in particular the potential role of personalized treatments. Dr. Schlossmacher will take questions from online participants during the second half of his presentation.

Goals for Participants
* Become familiar with biomarkers for Parkinson’s: what they are; how they will help scientists to diagnose and track a person’s disease; and how they will help us to develop personalized treatments.
* Understand how studying (and treating) “sub-groups” of people living with Parkinson’s is important for clinical trials to succeed.
* Learn about the strong link between Parkinson’s disease and the Gaucher disease gene and what it means for drug trials. People living with typical Parkinson’s have a 10-12 percent chance of carrying a mutation in this gene.

Register here:
http://event.netbriefings.com/event/pde ... ister.html

You can join:
* online, using your computer speakers for the audio
* online (to view the slide presentation) and via telephone (to hear the audio)
* by telephone only

To join by telephone:
* dial tollfree 888-272-8710
* enter the passcode 6323567#

If you are joining by telephone, the benefit of registering for the event is that PDF will email you reminders about the webinar and they often email to let you know when the archived version is available on the PDF website (pdf.org).

This was a fascinating webinar though parts of it were hard to understand. Dr. Schlossmacher's slides are posted here:

http://www.pdf.org/pdf/pd_briefing_ppt_ ... macher.pdf