Dr Fernagut received his PhD from the University of Bordeaux, France. His previous work focused on the development of an animal model of striatonigral degeneration, a neurodegenerative disease related to Parkinson's disease. He joined the Chesselet laboratory at UCLA for post-doctoral training in 2003. Since that time, he has analyzed the effects of over-expressing alpha-synuclein in mice, which mimics a mutation known to cause Parkinson's disease in humans. He his particularly interested in the role of genes and environment, especially pesticides and pollution, in increasing the risk for Parkinson's disease, and has recently found that exposure to the pesticide paraquat increases the formation of alpha-synuclein aggregates in vivo in mice overexpressing alpha-synuclein. He has co-authored 15 original manuscripts and two reviews