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Marie-Francoise Chesselet, MD, PhD - Scientific Advisory Board
Charles H. Markham Professor of Neurology
Department of Neurology
David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California
Los Angeles, California

Dr. Marie-Francoise Chesselet received her MD and PhD degrees from the University of Paris VI, in France. She completed her internship at the Hopital de l'Hotel Dieu in Paris and her PhD thesis in the laboratory of Jacques Glowinski at the College of France. After obtaining a position at the CNRS, she joined the laboratory of Ann Graybiel at MIT and the laboratory of Michael Bronstein at the NIH as a Visiting Scientist. She held faculty appointments at the Medical College of Pennsylvania and the University of Pennsylvania before joining UCLA as the Charles H. Markham Professor of Neurology in 1996. She is currently Chair of the Department of Neurobiology in the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. She is also Director of the APDA Advanced Center for Parkinson's Disease Research, Morris K. Udall Center of Excellence for Parkinson's Disease Research and the Center for Gene Environment Studies in Parkinson's Disease at UCLA.



Research Interest: Molecular mechanisms of neurodegenerative diseases



We investigate the molecular mechanisms of dysfunction and neurodegeneration in the basal ganglia, brain regions involved in the control of movement and cognition, and affected in neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson's and Huntington's diseases. We use studies of gene regulation with in situ hybridization histochemistry, quantitative RT-PCR and DNA microarrays, anatomical techniques and behavioral analysis, to identify dysfunction in specific neuronal pathways leading to movement disorders in animal models, and to understand the mechanisms responsible for neuronal plasticity during development and after ischemic brain injury. The goal of our research is to develop new therapeutic strategies for the treatment of movement disorders, neurodegeneration and to restore brain function after brain injury.