PARKINSON'S: DOING RESEARCH TOGETHER WITH PATIENTS AND THEIR CARERS

For nearly 20 years, the World Parkinson Coalition, based in New York City, has been organizing regular congresses to review the state of affairs regarding Parkinson's disease, the second most common neurodegenerative disease in the world after Alzheimer's. The difference with other specialist congresses is that it brings together in a single event thousands of researchers, neurologists, general practitioners, nurses, rehabilitation specialists and dieticians, as well as patients and relatives from all over the world. At the next meeting in Barcelona, in 2022, Mattia Volta, neuroscientist at the Institute of Biomedicine, designated "scientific ambassador" along with seven other colleagues from Australia, USA, Great Britain, France and Spain, will not miss it. "Our task is to involve colleagues from the scientific community," explains Volta, "Many basic researchers work hard to find a cure for Parkinson's, but often do not have the opportunity to hear directly from people who live with the disease every day. These opportunities for exchange are essential to rekindle the passion for our work and in some cases to recalibrate our research based on people's concrete priorities." Mattia Volta studied pharmaceutical chemistry in Ferrara and worked for several years at the University of British Columbia (Vancouver, Canada) before joining Eurac Research. Here he researches in particular the origin of alterations in the molecular process that cause Parkinson's disease.