Discussion

Parkinson's disease (PD) is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder that affects more than 5 million people worldwide. Novel models are urgently needed to accelerate the discovery of disease mechanisms, drug targets and screening purposes. We have developed PD model systems using donor fibroblasts. iPSCs were generated and evaluated using both cellular and genetic analysis tools then differentiated to dopaminergic neurons and other relevant cell types to study the associated cell types involved in PD. With this work, we hope to demonstrate how systems can be developed to identify drugs that may ameliorate the processes that underlie PD, or to understand the environmental factors that impact the development of PD.