Jeffery Twiss received his B.A. in Chemistry from the College of Charleston and M.D., Ph.D. from the Medical University of South Carolina. After clinical training in Neuropathology and post-doctoral work in Neurobiology at Stanford University Medical School, he started his own laboratory in the Department of Pathology at UCLA. His research program has centered on understanding the intracellular signaling and molecular mechanisms of neural repair. Although his lab focused more on nerve regeneration, he maintained an interest in neurodegenerative diseases from his clinical work in Neuropathology. In 2002, Dr. Twiss was recruited to head the Neuroscience Research Laboratory of Nemours Biomedical Research Institute at Alfred I duPont Hospital for Children. He also holds an appointment in Department of Biological Sciences at the University of Delaware. Recent work from his lab indicate that some proteins that are mutated in familial forms of Parkinson's disease are locally synthesized in regenerating axons. This has allowed Dr. Twiss to refocus efforts towards understanding how local synthesis of these proteins contributes to neuronal wellness.