Parkinson's Disease (PD) remains the second-most common neurodegenerative disorder behind Alzheimer's Disease, and the incidence of patients being diagnosed with PD will only rise as we all get older. With this in mind, much personnel and resources are dedicated to discovering more about this disease and to develop better treatments and management strategies to improve the livelihoods of those afflicted with PD. April is Parkinson's Awareness Month, and this is a perfect time for us not only to raise funds and awareness to help PD patients, but also to learn about how companies like ABclonal can help accelerate the research behind PD onset and progression. Here, we highlight studies using ABclonal products that were published within the past year that add new insights into Parkinson's research.

At the turn of the millenium, actor Michael J. Fox, whom you might remember from the Back to the Future films and Family Ties if you're a certain age, had to depart the cast of the popular sitcom Spin City because he was diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease. I was a frequent viewer of the show (and of course I watched Back to the Future, and so should you) so it was a shock to the system to see a man who was still so vibrant and young have to take a step back from his profession because of that diagnosis. April is Parkinson's Awareness Month, which you can read more about from Fox's foundation and others, and in this post I thought we could learn more about this disorder together as humanity works towards an eventual cure.

Reaching the golden years doesn’t always feel so golden. As we age, disease, injury, and other stress factors from the environment will damage our bodies' cells. Most cells may be able to repair that damage, while our immune system usually clears those damaged cells through a process called apoptosis.^[1] However, if cellular repair and clearance is not effective, the residual damaged cells will further weaken the immune system and deteriorate other biological processes. Is there a possibility that we can avoid this cellular damage and improve the health of older people? A cellular state known as senescence might hold the key to this question.^{[1, 2]} During senescence, the damaged cells irreversibly stop dividing and resist being removed. ^[3] Researchers have shown that determining senescence biomarkers could lead to new therapies for the inflammatory disease caused by senescence in older people.^[4]

When I taught high school biology, a favorite part of the curriculum was cellular structures and functions. I set up an activity suggested by other experienced biology teachers that was based on the “Cell City,” a learning analogy where students would create an artwork of a city with the mitochondrion as a power plant and a vacuole as a lake. (Figure 1) I wish I saved their very creative projects, but I distinctly remember one group used the Chicago Transit Authority’s elevated train system map to represent the endoplasmic reticulum (ER), a very clever use of the analogy and a nod to city pride. It was also the first time these students really thought about vesicular transport, although they didn't fully understand its importance.