We are involved in a large number of clinical research trials including pharmacologic studies evaluating a number of drugs at various stages of Parkinson's disease and other Movement Disorders.
The Toronto Western Hospital Movement Disorders Program remains a world leader in the surgical management of Parkinson's disease including the evaluation of deep brain stimulation (DBS) in novel sites or for new indications and the use of MRI-guided Focused Ultrasound.
Collaborators in the surgical arm of the program include Dr. Alfonso Fasano and Dr. Renato Munhoz in neurology and Dr. Andres Lozano, Dr. Mojgan Hodaie and Dr. Suneil Kalia in neurosurgery.
Neuropsychological and imaging evaluations of patients participating in these studies represent an important component of our collaborative research. Additional neurophysiologic studies in surgical patients as well as in other movement disorders are carried out by Dr. Robert Chen.
Clinical trials are very active in the program. Dr. Susan Fox directs a program in clinical neuropharmacology and early proof of principle studies. Dr. Connie Marras conducts clinical epidemiological studies including evaluating families with genetic forms of various movement disorders and assessing risk factors that could contribute to diseases such as Parkinson's disease.
We have recently developed a specialty clinic in the ataxias directed by Dr. Elizabeth Slow and Dr. Renato Munhoz.
Neuroimaging is an important component of our program and Dr. Antonio Strafella directs a very active functional imaging research program using positron emission tomography and functional MRI.
Molecular and cell biology and clinical genetics of movement disorders including Parkinson's disease are areas of expanding interest with Dr. Lorraine Kalia in the Tanz Centre for Research in Neurodegenerative Diseases, Krembil Brain Institute.
Neuropathologist Dr. Gabor Kovacs and Dr. Naomi Visanji also work out of the Tanz Centre for Research in Neurodegenerative Disease, Krembil Brain Institute. Their work is supported by the Rossy Program for progressive supranuclear palsy research (PSP) led by Dr. Anthony Lang. Some of their work looks at identifying where the disease and the pathological accumulation of the tau protein starts in the brain, to better monitor patients and predict prognoses.
This broad-based research program is directed at attempting to solve the 'Parkinson puzzle' and other Movement Disorders at many levels including attempts at understanding the cause(s), improving the accuracy of diagnosis preventing/slowing the progression and treating the later stages more effectively.
