Tuesday, June 18, 2019
1:00 – 2:00 PM ~ C1-7 Communicore Building
Jane Paulsen, Ph.D.
Department Chair of Neuroscience and Professor of Psychology, Psychiatry & Neurology
Carver College of Medicine
University of Iowa
Early reports from immune and gene therapies currently in progress for persons diagnosed with Huntington disease (HD) indicate a disease-modifying impact. Persons who have the gene mutation but do not yet have a diagnosis of disease are asking for treatments to delay the onset or slow disease progression while they are able to work and care for themselves and their families. The PREDICT-HD study was designed to identify and track early signs and symptoms of disease in healthy HD gene carriers. This talk will review HD, clinical trials in HD, and gaps in the literature where research data could enable clinical trials in gene carriers before diagnosis. Questions such as “how do we know whether a treatment is effective in persons before diagnosis?” and “when should treatment in gene carriers begin?” will be addressed
Dr. Paulsen is a Department Chair of Neuroscience and Professor of Neurology, Psychiatry, and Psychology in the Carver College of Medicine at the University of Iowa. She is also a licensed psychologist in the States of California and Iowa. Dr. Paulsen research focuses on neural basis of cognition, preclinical deficits in dementia gene-carriers, frontal-subcortical deficits, and particularly Huntington’s disease. Dr. Paulsen uses tools of neuropsychology and cognitive psychology to examine behavioral correlates of brain dysfunction. Topics of current interest include subtypes of Alzheimer’s disease, preclinical cognitive deficits associated with gene-carriers of Huntington’s disease, and clinical/imaging correlates of cognitive measures.