I meet Heather Chester from The Parkinson's Institute (TPI) at the Parkinson's Unity Walk. She was talking about the institute's unique role. The Parkinson's Institute, located in Sunnyvale, California, is a not-for-profit clinic focused on providing care to Parkinson's patients, and conducting basic and clinical research.
This gives patients a unique opportunity to work with specialists in the field who treat patients as well as research causes, treatments, and cures for Parkinson's disease. In addition to research, the clinic sees as many as 1,500 patients each year from all over the world.
The TPI is staffed with an amazing team of experts:
J. William Langston, M.D., founder of TPI, is credited with discovering the link between "synthetic heroin" and parkinsonism. This compound know as MPTP allows researchers to create Parkinson's like symptoms in animals for use in research and is one of the most significant strides forward in Parkinson's research.
Caroline Tanner, M.D., Ph.D., one of the leading epidemiologist in the world, has been conducting research on twins to determine how much the environment plays into the development of Parkinson's disease.
For more information about TPI visit their Web site at www.parkinsonsinstitute.org
