Faculty Research

Roger L. Albin, M.D. ( ralbin@umich.edu )
Professor of Neurology; Chief, Neuroscience Research, Ann Arbor VAMC GRECC
Co-Director, Movement Disorders Clinic

Dr. Albin's primary interest is the organization of the striatum and striatal dysfunction in disorders of the basal ganglia. He has pursues both laboratory based research and clinical research on this topic. The major focus of the laboratory is understanding the pathogenesis of striatal neurodegeneration in Huntington's disease (HD) and related polyglutamine disorders. This line of research is being pursued with murine genetic models of Huntington's disease. We are pursuing also the evaluation of potential treatments in these models. We have also collaborated with other laboratories here to characterize neurologic abnormalities in other murine genetic models. He is also studying striatal dysfunction in Tourette syndrome, Parkinson's disease, and dystonias with novel positron emission tomography methods to characterize striatal dopaminergic and cholinergic alterations in these disorders. Finally, he has been active in clinical trials and observational studies of Parkinson's disease and Huntington's disease.