Oleg S. Gorbatyuk, MD, PhD, received his PhD from the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences. He underwent postdoctoral training in neuroscience/histology, mentored by Dr. Tomas Hokfelt at Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden. In 1998, he joined the Department of Neurology/Neuroscience at Weill Medical College of Cornell University, where he worked with Dr. Donald Reis, to study agmatine as a novel neurotransmitter/neuromodulator in the brain. He then moved to the University of Florida where, as part of a team, he helped to develop a method for creating pre-clinical models of Parkinson disease (PD) by injecting AAV vectors expressing alpha-synuclein into the substantia nigra pars compacta. Currently, he holds the position of associate professor of research in the Department of Vision Sciences and Center for Neurodegeneration and Experimental Therapy at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.