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Dr. Richfield’s research interests include the pathophysiology of Parkinson’s disease. This disease is considered a complex trait resulting from interactions between genetic background, life-long exposures, diet and lifestyle. Animal models are used to understand some risk factors that have been implicated in the human condition. Current interests include exploring the role of the gene α-synuclein in mouse models. This gene is implicated in both familial and sporadic human disease based on a variety of lines of information. However, the mechanism for contributing to disease is not yet known. Transgenic mice are used in combination with other risk factors including age, gender, and exposures to understand how these various factors interact to result in neuron death. Dr. Richfield is also interested in studying the mechanism for other neurotoxicants including pesticides and other natural products.
Dr. Richfield is also studies the role of genetic background and risk modifying genes in relationship to the nigrostriatal system which is involved in Parkinson’s Disease and in their contribution to vulnerability to neurotoxicants. This work involves using different strains of mice including inbred, hybrid, and congenic mice to identify biological and genetic contributions to risk.
Dr. Richfield also directs the Molecular Histology Center based at EOHSI which serves as a resource for performing a variety of tissue-section based assays. Most of these assays are used both in his research and as a service for investigators at UMDNJ, Rutgers, and other academic and industrial institutions.
Finally, Dr. Richfield is using postmortem human brain tissue to develop criteria for diagnosis and the grading of severity of patients with a diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease during life.
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