Dr. Maraganore is a Professor of Neurology at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. He is a movement disorders specialist and leads a multidisciplinary research study of the molecular epidemiology of Parkinson's disease. His research is funded by the National Institutes of Health and Mayo Foundation. He also leads a Global Genetics Consortium funded by The Michael J. Fox Foundation. As a clinician, he is well aware of the limitations of existing Parkinson's disease treatments. Hence, the mission of his research is to develop treatments that will halt the progression of Parkinson's disease. Dr. Maraganore and his team aim to do so via human genome epidemiology studies. This process entails the discovery of susceptibility genes for Parkinson's disease, the study of gene-gene and gene-environment interactions, and the correlation of genotypes to disease outcomes. Through this process, he and his team will nominate and validate molecular targets for new drug development. As proof of principle, he and his colleagues have announced a collaboration with Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, Inc., to develop RNA interference and related therapies to reduce alpha-synuclein gene expression therapy. RNA interference has been widely acclaimed as a major technological breakthrough in medicine.