Background pattern of a brain with neural connections

Team Root

Ventral tegmental area dopamine neuron subtype-specific roles in Parkinson’s disease-related cognitive symptoms

2026-Present

Cognitive dysfunction significantly reduces quality of life for Parkinson’s patients and caretakers. We show that cognitive symptoms are controlled by ventral tegmental area (VTA) dopamine neurons, a genetically-defined subset of which degrades in Parkinson’s Disease (PD). Glutamate-dopamine co transmitting neurons preferentially survive in PD over nonglutamate-dopamine neurons. We hypothesize that VTA dopamine cell-type imbalance causes cognitive dysfunction. We will identify how surviving genetically-distinct VTA dopaminergic cell-types and targets are altered physiologically, transcriptionally, and functionally in their processing of cognitive information, as well as how they may be leveraged to reduce PD cognitive symptoms.

Tags
Cognitive declineGlutamate signalingNeurotransmittersOptogeneticsSynaptic transmissionViral vectors

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In the News

Decoding the Blueprint: Advancing Personalized Parkinson’s Treatments

Decoding the Blueprint: Advancing Personalized Parkinson’s Treatments

05/21/2026 — In our community, we often hear: “If you’ve met one person with Parkinson’s, you’ve met one person with Parkinson’s.” This isn’t just an adage — it’s a biological reality. This radical variability is exactly what makes the disease so difficult to outsmart. We’ve learned that a puzzle this fragmented cannot be solved with a single, broad stroke. Our goal isn’t to find one answer for everyone, but the right answer for the right person at the right time.

Aligning Science Across Parkinson’s and The Michael J. Fox Foundation Expand Global Research Initiative with $261M Investment Toward Personalized Treatments

Aligning Science Across Parkinson’s and The Michael J. Fox Foundation Expand Global Research Initiative with $261M Investment Toward Personalized Treatments

04/28/2026 — Today, Aligning Science Across Parkinson’s (ASAP), in partnership with The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research (MJFF), announced $261 million in new grant funding for the Collaborative Research Network (CRN) to map the biological blueprint of Parkinson’s disease and build a standardized toolkit of global research resources that are needed to turn discoveries into treatments.

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Members of the CRN work diligently to advance our understanding of Parkinson’s disease. Learn more about recent CRN discoveries and achievements.