Esther Sammler

Esther is a clinician-scientist with a focus on Parkinson’s disease (PD) and neurogenetics. Her research uses a translational bench-to-bedside approach to accelerate the validation and application of basic scientific discoveries for obtaining a better understanding of the pathogenic mechanisms in PD and developing biomarkers for patient stratification. Her recent work has centered on LRRK2 and its modifiers: She has developed new methods using surrogate biochemical markers to interrogate the activity of LRRK2 in peripheral blood cells. In collaboration with Dario Alessi and Alexander Zimprich, she has shown that people with PD who carry a particular pair of mutations have significantly increased activity in the LRRK2 kinase pathway, suggesting that these mutations activate LRRK2 by a yet unknown mechanism. In addition, Dr. Sammler runs a specialist PD clinic and acts as principal investigator for clinical trials and research projects