About

Imagine you could predict what is going awry in a patient and precision drugs to fix the glitch before it spirals out of control. Rather than treating patients as if they were the same, our research targets the specific disease driver in a person. Instead of scrambling to play catch-up, our goal is to prevent disease from progressing.

The mission of the inter-departmental Stephen & Denise Adams Center is to build the health care of the future for Parkinson’s disease: predictive and preventive precision neurology using the power of genomics and AI. Our unique platform allows us to predict and discover targets for precision drugs and biomarkers directly from people with Parkinson’s. At the core of this Parkinson DiscoveryEngine are massive genome, transcriptome, biome and health data streams of thousands of people with Parkinson’s.

Our investigators collaborate to characterize new genes, new therapeutic targets, new diagnostics, and new disease mechanisms using human stem cell avatars and genetically engineered animal models. We develop novel therapies with partners in biotech and in virtual clinical trials.

Groundbreaking advances are being made through the work of Clemens Scherzer, Sreganga Chandra, Thomas Biederer, Pietro De Camilli, David Halfer, Xianjun Dong, David Matuskey, Shawn Ferguson, Steven Strittmatter and many other principal investigators participating in the Adams Center.

Excitingly, the future has already begun.

Innovation comes from ingenious people and ideas that defy conventional boxes and silos. Our Center brings together two dozen world-class scientists, physicians, and engineers from across the fields of neurology, neuroscience, genetics, and computer science at Yale. These leaders shared a passion to solve Parkinson’s disease and to generally advance precision neurology. The Center is affiliated with the Departments of Neurology, Genetics, Neuroscience, and Biomedical Informatics and Data Science.

With our amazing patient community and the generosity of Stephen and Denise Adams, the support of the American Parkinson Disease Association, philanthropy, and funding agencies, we are building a vibrant hub for ingenuity, research, education and clinical breakthroughs.

Our research is lean, nimble, and fast-paced. The Center is organized as a biotech start-up embedded in academia. Starting with small steps, but huge dreams, we’ll relentlessly reach for this worthwhile goal.

— Clemens Scherzer, MD
Founding Center Director