Speaker Series - Why Should Patients Care About Genetics in Parkinson's Disease

March 11, 2025 7:00 - 8:00 PM EDT

• What does Genetics mean?
• How does knowing one's genetic status make any difference?
• What's involved in a genetic test?
• What happens when I get the results?

About our Speaker

Jennifer Johnston, PhD, has been studying neurodegenerative disease for the last twenty years. Her work with Dr. R. Kopito at Stanford led to the discovery and description of aggresomes. This discovery provided the first example of cellular proteostasis and demonstrated a link between the proteasome pathway and canonical neurodegeneration pathology phenotypes. Her research has resulted in more than ten patents and over forty publications. 

At Elan Pharmaceuticals, Dr. Johnston directly applied the tenets of aggresome biology, protein folding and cellular proteostasis to basic research and drug discovery for Parkinson’s disease and neurodegeneration in general. In addition to VP Research and Head of Exploratory Research, Dr. Johnston also leads the Parkin Project, a drug discovery program focused on identifying specific small molecule therapeutics that modulate the activity of Parkin E3 ligase. Presently, Dr. Johnston is Co-Founder/CEO of NysnoBio, a biotech company focused on the modulation of the parkin enzyme pathway for critical unmet medical needs in neurology and oncology. She has served as a reviewer for multiple scientific journals and on the Scientific Advisory Board of the Michael J. Fox Foundation for over 15 years.