Valerie Joers, PhD, is a research assistant professor at the University of Florida with more than a decade of experience in studying models of Parkinson’s disease. Dr. Joers’s research focuses on the role of cannabinoid receptor signaling to regulate communication between immune cells in the peripheral and central nervous systems in age-related neurodegenerative disorders such as Parkinson’s disease. Understanding the function of cannabinoid receptors in immunity could provide therapeutic targets to treat the impaired immune system in Parkinson’s.

She obtained her doctorate in neuroscience from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and completed her postdoctoral training at Emory University.