The Morris K. Udall Parkinson's Disease Research Center of Excellence

More than ten years ago, Congress created the Morris K. Udall Centers of Excellence for Parkinson's Disease Research (Udall Centers). The primary goal of the Udall Centers is to develop new clinical treatments for Parkinson's disease. However, it is well recognized that because there is so much that we do not yet understand about the causes of Parkinson's disease, basic science is currently a key component of the overall effort to develop clinical treatments.

What is Parkinson’s disease?

Parkinson’s disease is a neurodegenerative disorder, which affects more than 1% of people over the age of 60. There are currently no proven treatments to slow or halt disease progression. 

Learn more about Parkinson’s disease at the Johns Hopkins Parkinson’s Disease and Movement Disorders Center.

The Udall Center at Johns Hopkins

One of the goals of the Udall Centers is to have an infrastructure in place that can efficiently facilitate a rapid translation from research to clinical when promising breakthroughs occur.

Over the last year, The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine Udall Center has made significant steps towards understanding the underlying mechanisms that cause Parkinson’s disease and have yielded promising targets for developing treatments against the disease.