Dr. Chesselet was on the faculty of the University of Pennsylvania before joining University of California, Los Angeles in 1996.  In 1997, she established the Center for the Study of Parkinson’s Disease at UCLA and directs the University of California, Los Angeles Morris K. Udall Center of Excellence for Parkinson’s Disease Research (1999-2012) and the Center for Gene Environment in Parkinson’s Disease (2002-2013), both supported by NIH, as well as the University of California, Los Angeles Advanced Center for Parkinson Disease Research of the American Parkinson Disease Association (since 1998), and she serves on the scientific advisory board’s of several private foundations.  Her laboratory conducts research on the molecular mechanisms of disorders of the basal ganglia and new treatments for Parkinson’s disease and Huntington’s disease.  Her work is supported by the NIH, the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research, Cure HD Initiative, the Hereditary Foundation, and biopharmaceutical companies.  Dr Chesselet is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and serves on the National Advisory Environmental Health Sciences Council.