Over the past year I don’t know how many times I’ve heard someone senior to me say that they believe within my lifetime professionals will find a cure for Parkinson’s disease (PD).  I found that thought to be very interesting.  I am twenty-four years old and have had many experiences in my life, but I’ve just become plugged into the rapid world of research the last 6 years of my life.  I hope that we continue to grow in our sciences and technology so that we can continue to grow our knowledge and understanding of not only Parkinson’s disease, but of the whole world around us.  I am grateful for researchers, doctors, professionals, and patients of Parkinson’s disease that have dedicated their lives to closing the gaps of Parkinson’s disease.  A recent article suggests that many researchers are very close to making ground-shaking discoveries.

One discovery includes a greater understanding of the gene, forkhead box A2 (FOXA2), which is responsible for the differentiation and spontaneous destruction of neurons that secrete the neurotransmitter dopamine, a cell population that is progressively lost in Parkinson’s disease, which is characterized by tremors , loss of muscle control and speech difficulties. 

Just that spec of research throws open the doors to researchers so they now have a starting place to find a cure for this Parkinson’s.  It would be interesting to travel back in time ten years ago and interview the world’s greatest professional about Parkinson’s disease and then compare it to what we have today, I think it would just blow our socks off how much we’ve discovered since then and I hope that we continue to get our socks blown off by the many things we’ll learn in the future.

To learn more about the above mentioned discovery please click here.

This entry was posted on Friday, December 14th, 2007 at 9:38 pm and is filed under General, Inspirational. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.