Loukia Parisiadou, Ph.D.

Loukia completed her undergraduate studies at the University of Sheffield in the UK and earned her Ph.D. from the University of Athens in Greece. She then pursued postdoctoral training in the Neurogenetics Laboratory at the National Institute on Aging during a transformative period in Parkinson’s disease research, when LRRK2 mutations were identified as a cause of Parkinson’s disease. This discovery shaped her long-standing interest in understanding the molecular basis of Parkinson’s disease, particularly familial forms linked to LRRK2 and α-synuclein.

She later joined the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University, where she established her independent research program. Her work has provided important insights into the role of LRRK2 in Parkinson’s disease and has led to the development of mouse models and cellular and molecular tools that have advanced the field. She has received sustained support from federal and private funding agencies and was twice honored with the NIH Fellows Award for Research Excellence.

When not on campus, she enjoys traveling to the Greek islands and exploring Chicago with her two sons and daughter.

                                                                              Tinos: Loukia's favorite Greek island!

Mani: "The Mani is a wild, rugged region. From the steep foothills of the snow-tipped Taÿgetos Mountains to the pristine coastal coves, and from the tiny villages nestling amid olive groves, connected by threads of walking trails to the arid scenery in the south of peninsula, speckled with abandoned stone towers, the Mani has some of the most dramatic and varied scenery in the Peloponnese, much of it still wonderfully under explored". -from Lonely Planet