The Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine

We research the molecular mechanisms of neurodegeneration and seek to develop therapeutic strategies for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and related diseases using various models systems including the fruit fly Drosophila, human cells and patient tissues. We take a “fly-to-human” approach whereby we use the fruit fly models of disease to discover novel targets, pathways or small molecules that we subsequently validate in human cells and/or tissues.