Movement Disorders
Faculty members in the UC Davis Neuroscience Consortium are among the nation’s experts in movement disorders, including Parkinson’s disease, tremor disorders, Huntington’s disease, dystonia, ataxia and neurogenetic disorders. The UC Davis Huntington’s disease Center of Excellence provides multidisciplinary care and conducts clinical and translational research directed at discovering new therapies. The Parkinson’s disease program provides state-of-the-art care and conducts clinical research studies. The Departments of Neurology and Neurological Surgery collaborate on the Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) program, which is designed to help our patients maintain their quality of life and avoid debilitating symptoms through the use of a surgically implanted, programmable brain pacemaker. DBS addresses certain neurological symptoms associated with Parkinson’s disease, essential tremor, dystonia and epilepsy. Faculty working in this area span multiple fields, including neuroscientists, neurologists, neurosurgeons, neuropsychologists, geneticists and engineers that form large interdisciplinary teams to drive technology development to improve lives. 18 faculty members from 5 departments and 4 centers work in this area.
Faculty studying movement disorders
| Michelle Chan, Ph.D. | Neuropsychology, dementia, movement disorders and epilepsy | |
| Daniel L. Cox, Ph.D. | Modeling neuronal sensing/navigation circuits and impacts from neurodegenerative damage. | |
| Joshua Dayananthan, M.D. | Deep brain stimulation; movement disorders | |
| Alexandra (Sasha) Duffy, D.O. | Movement disorders | |
| Brittany N. Dugger, Ph.D. | Neuropathology, neurodegenerative diseases, digital pathology, disease heterogeneity, health equity | |
| Julius O. Ebinu, M.D., Ph.D. | Neurological surgery; minimally invasive surgery; spine surgery; and neuro-oncology | |
| Sarah Tomaszewski Farias, Ph.D. | Cognitive aging and dementia; early disease detection; life-course risk and protective factors; and behavioral interventions to delay cognitive and functional loss | |
| Kyle Fink, Ph.D. | Therapeutic development for genetically-linked neurological disorders | |
| Wilsaan M. Joiner, Ph.D. | Sensorimotor integration, motor learning/control and clinical applications | |
| Kee D. Kim, M.D. | Spine surgery and spinal disorders | |
| Norika Malhado-Chang, M.D. | Movement disorders | |
| Allan Martin, M.D. Ph.D., F.R.C.S.C. | Spine imaging and surgery | |
| Karen Moxon, Ph.D. | Neural encoding and plasticity, neuroprosthetics, neuroengineering, brain-machine interfaces | |
| Carolynn Patten, Ph.D., P.T., F.A.P.T.A. | Neural basis of human movement, investigating human motor control and learning from a perspective of neuromechanics | |
| Kia Shahlaie, M.D., Ph.D. | Deep brain stimulation techniques to improve learning and memory function; traumatic brain injury, epilepsy, Parkinson's disease | |
| Sergey Stavisky, Ph.D. | Brain-computer interfaces for restoring speech and reach and grasp | |
| Vicki L. Wheelock, M.D. | Movement disorders, including Huntington's disease, Parkinson's disease, essential tremor, ataxia; deep brain stimulation | |
| Lin Zhang, M.D., Ph.D. | Parkinson's Disease; deep brain stimulation |