Dr. Tjalkens is associate professor of Neurotoxicology and Neuroscience in the department of Environmental and Radiological Health Sciences at Colorado State University, in the College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences. He earned his PhD in toxicology from the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center in 1998 and completed a postdoctoral fellowship in Neurotoxicology and Experimental Neuropathology at the University of Michigan in 2001. Dr. Tjalkens‰Ûª laboratory focuses on gene-environment interactions in neurodegenerative diseases, with particular emphasis on Parkinson‰Ûªs disease. Research interests include neuroinflammation and pathophysiologic signaling responses of astrocytes and microglia, as well as the effects of heavy metals and drugs on neuroinflammatory reponses of glia. Active projects explore both the regulation of inflammatory signaling in glial cells and molecular targets for new therapeutic approaches designed to mitigate inflammatory injury in neurodegenerative diseases.