Posted on February 5, 2007 at 12:45 p.m.

Birmingham, Ala. – UAB (University of Alabama at Birmingham) will establish the UAB Center for Neurodegeneration and Experimental Therapeutics following action Feb. 2 by the Board of Trustees of the University of Alabama System. The center will allow for increased coordination among disciplines such as neurology, neurobiology, psychiatry, psychology, neurosurgery and neuropathology in the understanding and treatment of neurodegenerative disorders.

David G. Standaert, M.D., Ph.D., UAB professor of neurology, will be the director of the center. Standaert also is the director of the Division of Movement Disorders in the Department of Neurology and the inaugural holder of the John T. and Juanelle D. Strain Endowed Chair in Neurology.

The center will develop highly interactive and multidisciplinary efforts to accelerate laboratory discoveries into effective therapies for conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, Huntington’s disease and others.