Mel Feany is a neuropathologist and Drosophila geneticist who has focused her career as a physician-scientist on the clinical and basic research aspects of Parkinson’s disease (PD) and related neurodegenerative movement disorders. Her laboratory investigates the molecular and cellular mechanisms of PD pathogenesis with an emphasis on studying alpha-synuclein pathobiology in Drosophila models of the disorder. Most recently, work from her laboratory has identified mechanisms of dopaminergic neurotoxicity through perturbations of the actin cytoskeleton. Her mentees are advancing the field of PD research with groundbreaking work studying human genetics, patient tissue and models of PD spanning the gamut from yeast to induced pluripotent stem cells.