Parkinson's & Your Family: The Role of Genetics in the Disease (Virtual)

This past March, we hosted neurogenetics researcher Dr. Ignacio Mata, PhD, for an in-person presentation at our Beaverton office. We thought what he shared was so relevant and important, we asked if he would present his talk again virtually so we could share it with our wider PRO community. Dr. Mata graciously agreed!

In this informative discussion, we will explore the latest updates about genetics and its relationship with Parkinson's Disease. Dr. Mata will also share information about the impact research has on our understanding Parkinson's, how it informs the efforts to develop new treatment options ,and why it is important to participate in research studies.

Dr. Mata is currently Associate Staff at the Genomic Medicine Institute (GMI) at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation (CCF) and Assistant Professor of Molecular Medicine at the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine of Case Western Reserve University (CCLCM-CWRU). Previously to his position at the GMI he was at the VA Puget Sound/UW for 12 years. He has worked in the field of Parkinson's disease (PD) genetics for more than 20 years.

A significant focus of Dr. Mata's research has been performing genetic studies in non-European populations, especially those with a minority ethnic background such as Latinos. For this Dr. Mata created and coordinates the Latin American Research consortium on the Genetics of PD (LARGE-PD), a collaboration of more than 40 institutions in 14 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, trying to identify the genetic risk factors associated to PD in these populations. His work has been internationally recognized and he leads the Underrepresented Populations Working group in the Aligning Science Across Parkinson’s Global Parkinson’s Genetics Program (ASAP-GP2), a world-wide initiative to further understand the genetic architecture of PD in all populations.