Are the authors saying that research into the genetics of PD is no longer useful?
BF: No. Genetics research, in Parkinson’s as well as other diseases, continues to move forward, actually faster than ever. These papers argue — rightly, I believe — that new progress will ultimately require the development of next-generation techniques for peering even deeper into our DNA. This is how we will capture a more complete picture of how genes contribute to diseases like PD. The papers are essentially the summation of a position that has been growing in popularity among researchers for some time now: The genetic basis of diseases like PD is extremely complex, and current genetic research methods must be augmented with new and more powerful technologies in order to explain the full genetic basis of disease. The techniques we’ve been able to use so far allowed us to look in some obvious places and identified a number of genetic changes linked to PD. But the genetic basis is still unclear for the vast majority of cases. And because we don’t have a full understanding, it also mak
