Teus van Laar, M.D., Ph.D., is a clinical neurologist by training, with special expertise in movement disorders, especially in Parkinson’s disease, and the effect of pharmacological interventions on this disease.

The first years of his career were focused on the treatment of advanced patients with Parkinson’s, during which time apomorphine was introduced in Europe. He contributed significantly to the clinical dossier necessary to register apomorphine in the Netherlands. After its introduction, he performed multiple studies to establish the effect of apomorphine on motor- and non-motor aspects of Parkinson’s. Thereafter, the focus of his interest moved towards non-motor aspects of the disease, especially on the cognitive deterioration, accompanied by visual hallucinations.

In 2010, he started the Parkinson Platform Northern Netherlands, which is a regional platform of 13 hospitals, including all the regional Parkinson’s neurologists and nurses, responsible in total for 5000 patients. The platform was the start of intensive clinical and research collaborations, focusing especially on the pathophysiology of Parkinson’s, and aiming for a personalized treatment approach for Parkinson’s patients. This platform made it possible to characterize 1,500 Parkinson’s patients with respect to their GBA and LRRK2 variants, which was completed within six months.

In 2016, Dr. van Laar became Medical Director of the Parkinson Expertise Center in Groningen.