Over 10 million people worldwide have Parkinson’s disease, an incurable disorder of the central nervous system that affects movement and causes the death of dopamine neurons over time. Despite years of research, doctors and researchers have been unable to pinpoint an exact cause of the disease.

Guy Caldwell, distinguished research professor in biological sciences at The University of Alabama, uses roundworms to study the effects and possible cause of Parkinson’s. With a grant from the National Institute of Health, Caldwell and a number of students and researchers work in the Molecular Neurogenetics of Disease Laboratory on UA’s campus, nicknamed the “Worm Shack.”

Caldwell’s lab injects the microscopic roundworms with the human gene for Parkinson’s disease, alpha-synuclein, and studies the effects of the gene on their dopamine neurons.

Once injected with the gene, all of the worms should have neuron death occurring. However, there is always a percentage of the population of worms that suffers no neuron death and is therefore resilient to Parkinson’s.

“We are looking at things from a different angle,” Caldwell said. “The idea is to look at resilience to Parkinson’s. We want to know what it is about some individuals that even though they might have the gene for Parkinson’s, they are resilient to it.”

Humans are typically not diagnosed with Parkinson’s until 80 percent of their dopamine neurons are already dead, causing tremors and movement disorders. While humans have over one million dopamine neurons, roundworms have exactly six, making it easier to study the effects of alpha-synuclein.

“We try to identify changes in what genes might be regulated in worms that are resilient versus worms that are not,” Caldwell said. “By that we hope we can identify a new class of molecule that we could use as therapeutic targets for the disease that have not been studied before. We’re really looking at things that are not coded within DNA, but things that can regulate how the DNA responds to different stresses.”

Brucker Nourse, a doctoral student, conducts the experiments along with two undergraduate students.

Nourse said he first became interested in the project after reading the grant from the National Institute of Health.

“Professionally it’s been a really great experience,” Nourse said. “I’d really like to have a career in doing biological research. Doing research is definitely something where you have to be dedicated and enthusiastic about what you’re doing.”