Marie-Françoise Chesselet - Senior Editor

Dr Marie-Françoise Chesselet is the Charles H. Markham Professor of Neurology and Chair of the Department of Neurobiology in the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. She is also Director of the Parkinson’s Disease Research Center at UCLA. She studies the molecular mechanisms of dysfunction and neurodegeneration in the basal ganglia, brain regions involved in the control of movement and cognition, and affected in neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson's and Huntington's diseases. She uses studies of gene regulation with in situ hybridization histochemistry, quantitative RT-PCR and DNA microarrays, anatomical techniques and behavioural analysis, to identify dysfunction in specific neuronal pathways leading to movement disorders in animal models, and to understand the mechanisms responsible for neuronal plasticity during development and after ischaemic brain injury. The goal of her research is to develop new therapeutic strategies for the treatment of movement disorders, neurodegeneration and to restore brain function after brain injury.