Robert R. Luedtke, PhD, grew up in the Chicagoland area and received a BS in Microbiology and a BA in Chemistry from the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana, IL. At the University of Illinois Dr. Luedtke did an undergraduate research project and became interested in molecular immunology. Prior to graduate school, Dr. Luedtke worked four years as a research technician in the Immunochemistry Group at Abbott Laboratories in North Chicago. He worked on the development of immunodiagnostics, while talking evening courses in music theory at the Chicago Conservatory of Music. Dr. Luedtke received his PhD from the Immunology Graduate Group, with a specialty in molecular immunology from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine in Philadelphia and did postdoctoral studies in immunogenetics at the Institute for Cancer Research at Fox Chase. At that point, Dr. Luedtke became interested in the family of proteins called neurotransmitter receptors or G protein coupled receptor proteins (GPDR). He took a research position in the Department of Pharmacology at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine with the goal of using his expertise in immunology to make antibodies to the dopamine receptor subtypes that could be used for research on the expression and regulation of dopaminergic pathways in the brain. At the University of Pennsylvania Dr. Luedtke and co-workers developed methods to prepare antibodies to the D2 and D3 dopamine receptors. Shortly after taking a position at the UNTHSC, Dr. Luedtke's laboratory developed monoclonal antibodies to the D1a and D1b receptors that have been commercialized for use by the Neuroscience research community. While in Texas he has received federally funded research awards from the National Institute for Neurological Disease and Stroke (NINDS) and the National Institute for Drug Abuse (NIDA) at the National Institute of Health (NIH). In addition, Dr. Luedtke was awarded grants from the Scottish Rite Schizophrenia Research program and the National Alliance for Research on Schizophrenia and Depression (NARSAD) Young Investigator award. In 2004 Dr. Luedtke was awarded a Fulbright Scholar Award in Molecular Neurobiology for his work at the Institut de Neurobiologie Alfred Fessard at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) in Gif-sur Yvette, France. Dr. Luedtke has had two uncles and one first cousin diagnosed with Parkinson's disease.