Abstract

In an aging society, the world is facing severe socio-economic burden of neurodegenerative disease such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and Huntington’s diseases. Among neurodegenerative diseases in the movement disorder category, we chose PD and HD as our main focus. PD is the second largest neurodegenerative disease, and HD is a relatively small but nevertheless important “model” disease. Both PD and HD involve neurodegeneration in basal ganglia, a brain region of many critical functions, and yet at the beginning to be understood.

Genetic approach is one of the most important tools for studying biology and medicine. And animal model methods are critical in the genetic development.

I will discuss two main aspects: a) The novel methods that we have developed in mouse genetics, rat genetics and in the future, non-human primate genetics. b) The animal models we have established for Parkinson’s disease and Huntington’s disease, and new findings of disease pathogenic mechanisms.