João Paulo Lima Daher, MD, PhD, is a postdoctoral fellow at the Center for Neurodegeneration and Experimental Therapeutics and Department of Neurology at the University of Alabama at Birmingha. Dr. Daher received his MD from Fluminense Federal University in Brazil. He continued into a doctoral training jointly with the Johns Hopkins Institute for Cell Engineering, in the laboratories of Ted and Valina Dawson. His research focused in understanding the molecular mechanisms of Parkinson's disease, in particular the characterization of transgenic models of LRRK2 and alpha-synuclein, the two autosomal dominant causes of Parkinson’s disease.

Dr. Daher joined the laboratory of Dr. Andrew West to further investigate the role of LRRK2 in neurodegeneration and neuroinflammatory responses associated to alpha-synuclein. Their ultimate goal is to fully describe the molecular and cellular mechanisms crucial to the development of novel pre-clinical models, and effective therapies that delay, interrupt and reverse the progression of Parkinson's disease.