Parkinson's disease is associated with the selective degeneration of midbrain dopaminergic neurons. Critical to our understanding of this degeneration is an understanding of the processes involved in their development. In an exciting step toward such an understanding, HSCI Principal Faculty member Ole Isacson, HSCI Affiliated Faculty member Kwang-Soo Kim and colleagues recently found that two regulatory genetic loops involving the factors Wnt1-LMX1a and SHH-FoxA2 help regulate key factors involved in midbrain dopaminergic neurons. This discovery contributes generally to our knowledge of the molecular landscape involved in midbrain dopaminergic neuron development and, more specifically, to our ability to identify potential targets for drugs and cell therapies to treat diseases such as Parkinson's that are associated with their demise.

Chung, S., Leung, A., Han, B.S., Chang, M.Y., Moon, J.I., Kim, C.H., Hong, S., Pruszak, J., Isacson, O., Kim, K.S. (2009). Wnt1-lmx1a forms a novel autoregulatory loop and controls midbrain dopaminergic differentiation synergistically with the SHH-FoxA2 pathway. Cell Stem Cell 5, 646-58.