School Notes: School of Medicine
January/February 2025

Precision medicine for Parkinson’s

Precision medicine for Parkinson’s is the focus of the new American Parkinson Disease Association (APDA)–funded Center for Advanced Research at Yale School of Medicine (YSM). APDA is the largest grassroots association for Parkinson’s disease in the United States. It selects institutions that not only are leaders in research, but also demonstrate excellent clinical care, offer educational opportunities for trainees, and show dedication to patient outreach. The new YSM center, to be led by Clemens Scherzer, Stephen and Denise Adams Professor of neurology and director of the Stephen and Denise Adams Center for Parkinson’s Disease Research at Yale, is one of nine APDA centers of excellence across the country. It is the only center worldwide focused on precision medicine for the neurodegenerative condition. 

“Our goal is to develop the future of precision medicine for Parkinson’s disease by bringing together the entire Yale community—the physician-scientists, researchers, engineers—to work together and identify its underlying genes and mechanisms,” says Scherzer, who notes that the funding for the new center continues a longstanding relationship between Yale and APDA.

Center to focus on diagnostic efforts

As part of an ongoing effort at Yale School of Medicine (YSM) to better understand rare diseases, a team spanning multiple departments and specialties from YSM and Yale New Haven Hospital has received a grant of approximately $3.35 million from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to join the Undiagnosed Diseases Network (UDN) as a new Diagnostic Center of Excellence. The Yale Diagnostic Center of Excellence will partner with key stakeholders in the community to increase genetic testing and diagnostic efforts in the Yale New Haven Health System and other health care systems in the state of Connecticut for patients with unexplained or undiagnosed symptoms, especially those from underserved groups. The UDN was established in 2013 by the NIH Common Fund with the goal of connecting research and clinical sites across the United States in order to better understand and treat patients with undiagnosed diseases.