CEEH Affiliate Dr. Jing Zhang (Member, Neurotoxicology and Neurodegenerative Diseases ARE) is interested in neuropathology and the genetic and molecular mechnanisms responsible for the development of chronic neurological disease such as Alzheimer’s disease (AD), Parkinson’s disease (PD), ALS, and manganism. Recently Dr. Zhang conducted a study in collaboration with Dr. Dick Beyer of the CEEH Integrative EHS Facility Core to discover biomarkers in the brains of patients with PD. Approximately 200 proteins were found to display significant differences in their relative abundance between PD patients at various stages and controls. Gene ontology analysis indicated that these altered proteins belonged to many categories (e.g. mitochondrial function and neurotransmission) that were likely critically involved in the development of PD. Dr. Zhang is now following up these studies in a larger cohort of PD patients, and also extending these exciting techniques to other neurological diseases such as AD.