Richard Jay Smeyne, PhD

Dr. Richard Smeyne is Professor and Chair of the Department of Neuroscience at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia as well as the Director of the Jefferson Comprehensive Parkinson’s Disease Center. The Smeyne lab has 3 main research foci:1) how the peripheral immune system interacts with the CNS in the etiology of PD; and how familial PD gene mutations can alter this crosstalk, 2) examining how viruses contribute to the etiology of PD and 3) the role of exercise in slowing the progression of PD.  Dr. Smeyne received his Ph.D. in Neuroanatomy in 1989 from Thomas Jefferson University (Philadelphia, PA), followed by postdoctoral training at the Roche Institute of Molecular Biology (Nutley, NJ) where he pioneered early studies of transgenesis; generating the first inducible transgenic mouse (c-fos-lacZ). Dr. Smeyne has worked in both Pharma (BMS and Hoffmann-LaRoche) and Academia (St. Jude Childen’s Research Hospital and his current position).