Roberta Marongiu, Ph.D., was recently featured in a Q&A on the American Parkinson’s Disease Association (APDA) web site about the research she is doing on the role of estrogen in the development of Parkinson’s disease. Dr. Marongiu is an Assistant Professor of Neuroscience in Neurological Surgery in Dr. Michael G. Kaplitt’s lab, where she works on developing gene therapy approaches for Parkinson's disease; she is particularly interested in the brain mechanisms that affect differences in how Parkinson’s disease begins and progresses in men and women.
The APDA is helping fund Dr. Marongiu’s research into how perimenopause – the transitional phase of the menopause process that leads to loss of gonadal hormones in women – influences a woman’s susceptibility to Parkinson’s disease. Women who are pre-menopausal have half the risk of developing Parkinson’s disease than either men or post-menopausal women.
Dr. Marongiu was interviewed for a post in A Closer Look, the APDA’s Ask the Researcher blog. Read the interview here
