Precision Medicine in Neurodegenerative Disorders, Part One, Volume 192 in the Handbook of Clinical Neurology deals with the "Why" in the approach to slow the progression of accelerated brain aging. This volume is intended to provide a scholarly background on the framework, basic science and conceptual pitfalls related to disease-modifying efforts in Parkinson's, Alzheimer's and other neurodegenerative disorders. Among topics covered are different models of precision medicine, the lumping-versus-splitting tension in biomarker development and therapeutics, and the rationale for replacing the convergence of the prevailing autopsy-based nosology of neurodegenerative diseases with the divergence of a systems biology approach to human diseases.
Specific chapters are dedicated to the promise of genetic subtypes and the lessons in disease modification offered by the fields of oncology and cystic fibrosis that can be adapted to the field of neurodegeneration. Matching a biology-correcting therapy with those biologically suitable to benefit from such therapy represents the vision and mission of precision medicine, the highest level of personalized medicine.
- Summarizes theory and research on precision medicine in neurodegenerative disorders
- Covers basic biology, clinical trials and therapeutics
- Includes disease mechanisms, genetic subtypes, and more
Dr. Alberto Espay is Professor and Endowed Chair of the James J. and Joan A. Gardner Center for Parkinson’s disease at the University of Cincinnati. He has published over 300 peer-reviewed research articles and 8 books, including Common Movement Disorders Pitfalls, which received the Highly Commended BMA Medical Book Award in 2013 and Brain Fables, the Hidden History of Neurodegenerative Diseases and a Blueprint to Conquer them, coauthored with Parkinson patient and advocate Benjamin Stecher, selected by the Association of American Publishers for the PROSE Award honoring the best scholarly work in Neuroscience published in 2020. He has served as Chair of the Movement Disorders Section of the American Academy of Neurology, Associate Editor of the Movement Disorders journal, and on the Executive Committee of the Parkinson Study Group. Among other honors, he has received the Cincinnati Business Courier’s Health Care Hero award, the Spanish Society of Neurology’s Cotzias award, and honorary membership in the Mexican Academy of Neurology. He currently serves as President-Elect of the Pan-American Section of the International Parkinson and Movement Disorders Society. With colleagues at the University of Cincinnati, he launched the first biomarker study of aging (CCBPstudy.com), designed to match people with neurodegenerative disorders to available therapies from which they are most biologically suitable to benefit, regardless of their clinical diagnoses.
