Michael Schwarzschild, MD, PhD

Michael Schwarzschild MD, PhD

Associate Professor of Neurology, Harvard Medical School

Since 1996 Dr. Schwarzschild has directed the Molecular Neurobiology Laboratory at the MassGeneral Institute for Neurodegenerative Disease at MGH, focusing on the role of three purines (adenosine, caffeine and urate) in animal models of PD. Together with Dr. Jiang-Fan Chen he discovered the neuroprotective properties of adenosine A_2A receptor blockers (including caffeine) in mouse models of the disease. His research team then provided evidence that these drugs may help prevent dyskinesia, a side effect of standard antiparkinsonian therapy. His leadership of a series of international research conferences in 2002 and 2006 on A_2A receptors in Parkinson’s has helped translate our understanding of this drug target into an emerging new therapy for Parkinson’s patients.

Most recently, through a fruitful interdisciplinary collaboration with epidemiologist Dr. Alberto Ascherio of the Harvard School of Public Health, Dr. Schwarzschild and his colleagues have discovered an unprecedented clue to why disease progression is mild in some and aggressive in others. In partnership with the Parkinson Study Group (PSG) they showed that the purine antioxidant urate can serve as a predictor of not only the risk of PD, but also the rate at which it progresses. Their work identifies urate as a molecular biomarker of PD progression rate, and as a candidate neuroprotective agent too. The convergent epidemiological and clinical data have led to development of a major national clinical trial for which he serves as PI. Download Biography (PDF)