Natalie Landeck, PhD, received her doctoral degree in neuroscience from the Lund University, Sweden, in 2016. As part of her doctoral training, she studied modifications and toxicity of alpha-synuclein -- a sticky protein that clumps in the brains of people with Parkinson's disease -- in vivo using research tools called viral vectors. In 2017, she joined the Laboratory of Neurogenetics at the National Institute on Aging as a postdoctoral fellow. Dr. Landeck currently studies the effect of mutations (changes) in genes associated with neurodegeneration in vivo. Her focus is predominantly on alpha-synuclein, its function and interaction with other disease-causing proteins and the underlying processes involving alpha-synuclein that lead to Parkinson's disease.