Laboratory for Early Markers of Neurodegeneration (LEMON)

​VISION

LEMON is nestled within the Neurological Institute and is part of the Center for the Study of Movement, Cognition, and Mobility (CMCM). Our mission is to identify novel markers of aging and neurodegeneration. More specifically, we aim to better understand the pathological process of neurodegeneration and identify measures that can predict degeneration through exploring clinical, biological, digital and neuronal markers using sensitive tests and tools (e.g., MRI, fMRI, EEG, fNIRS, wearable sensors). The knowledge gained by detecting markers of disease and disease progression will help identify individuals at risk, be used to guide personalized therapeutic approaches that may have a chance of altering the process of aging and neurodegeneration.

Team

Prof. Anat Mirelman (Ph.D) is an associate professor at Sackler School of Medicine and Sagol School of Neuroscience at Tel Aviv University, and is the director of the Laboratory for Early Markers of neurodegeneration (LEMON). In her research she is privileged to address questions relating to motor and cognitive function in ageing and disease and mechanisms of neurodegeneration. Over the past 12 years Prof. Mirelman has led the 'Genetics in Parkinson's disease Project' at TASMC. The goal of this project is to identify early subtle clinical markers that could indicate disease processes. As such, clinical, imaging, biological, sleep and digital markers are evaluated in populations at risk as measures of disease and disease progression. To date, this cohort includes more than 3000 participants and is considered one of the largest genetic PD cohorts in the world. Prof Mirelman also evaluates new methods to sensitively and accurately detect subtle motor or cognitive changes. She is an expert in digital technology and motor quantitative assessment, and has nearly 150 papers in peer review journals and is the associate editor of Frontiers in Neurology, and IEEE OJEMB. OJEMB. List of publications 

Dr. Avner Thaler (MD, Ph.D)

 is a movement disorders specialist at the Movement Disorders Unit, and a senior researcher at LEMON. His research focuses on clinical and imaging studies in genetic Parkinson's disease (LRRK2 and GBA), as well as among populations at risk for future disease. In his work, Dr. Thaler combines advanced functional and structural imaging together with comprehensive clinical assessments to better understand phenotype-genotype correlations and stratify risk for future disease.  In addition, he is ivestigates the role of inflammation in the risk and phenotype of Parkinson's disease. Publications list

Dr. Nurit Omer (MD)

is a senior neurologist in the movement disorders unit, and cognitive neurology division. She is head of the Creutzfeldt-Jakob (CJD) clinic in the neurological institute, Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center, where her focus is on the treatment of rare genetic neurological conditions. Currently, she is leading a large-scale prospective study aimed at identifying early markers for familial CJD. Also, she is a physician at the Huntington's disease (HD) clinic, a nation-wide recognized center for HD.
Publications list

Dr. Amgad Droby (Ph.D)

 is an assistant professor (lecturer) at the Sackler faculty of medicine, Tel Aviv University, and a senior research scientist at the laboratory for early markers of neurodegeneration (LEMON). His research focuses mainly on the investigation of novel early biomarkers for neurodegenerative diseases, as well as studying the interplay between neurodegenerative and compensatory processes in these individuals applying in vivo multimodal imaging approaches using structural and functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) techniques.  Publications list

Dr. Inbal Maidan (Ph.D)

 research aims to investigate, identify, and quantify the underlying neural mechanisms that contribute to changes in mobility and cognition among older adults, people with Parkinson's disease (PD), and other neurological diseases such as Epilepsy. Her current research focuses on developing and applying several complementary neuroimaging methods such as EEG and fNIRS to evaluate compensatory brain mechanisms that are activated to enable everyday life functions. A better understanding of these underlying brain mechanisms will lead to develop biomarkers for identifying individuals with high risk developing neurodegenerative disease. Publications list

List of active projects

• Parkinson Progressive Marker Initiative (PPMI)
• BeaT PD
• Gait PPMI
• Sensitive Gait Measures in Parkinson's disease
• Inflammatory Markers in  Parkinson's disease
• MRI as a surrogate model for prodromal  Parkinson's disease
• Digital technology for cognitive assessment
• Eye movement and pupil contraction as Markers of cognitive decline
• Nocturnal movements in PD
• Sleep monitoring at home using wearable technology
• Event Related Potential as a measure of cognitive decline and disease
• EEG and fNIRS for evaluating neural activation during function
• Motor-Cognitive Reserve
  

Collaborations

• Biogen Biotechnologies, Boston, MA , USA
• Bioeye, Israel
• Elminda, Israel
• Holon Institute of Technology
• Columbia University, NY USA
• Harvard University, Boston, MA, USA
• Boston University , Boston, MA,  USA
• University of Genova, Italy
• Alberta University, Canada
• Wilfried Laurie University, Canada
• University of Florida, USA
• Innsbruck University , Austria 
  
  

MEDIA LINKS

• Parkinson - Yedioth Ahronoth, 2017