Research illuminates Parkinson's disease protein

Recent research illuminates the dark state of alpha synuclein—a protein that is involved in the progression of Parkinson's disease. It is hoped that this research will help scientists and physicians understand the physiological role this protein has in the formation of fibrillar aggregates that are hallmarks of Parkinson's disease.

This research by Gianluigi Veglia, who is a professor of chemistry and biochemistry in the Department of Biochemistry, Molecular Biology & Biophysics, and collaborators from Cambridge University and the Imperial College of London is featured in a recent edition of Nature Communications. In addition to Veglia, researchers include Giuliana Fusco, Michele Vendruscolo and Christopher M. Dobson from the Department of Chemistry at the University of Cambridge; Alfonso De Simone from the Department of Life Sciences at Imperial College in London; and Tata Gopinath and Vitaly Vostrikov from the Department of Biochemistry, Molecular Biology and Biophysics at the University of Minnesota.