When Dr. Michael Okun began treating people with Parkinson’s disease, he realized medicine too often focused on symptoms instead of stories. He wanted to understand not just what patients were losing but what they hoped to keep, like their independence, laughter, movement and time with loved ones.

That focus on the person, not the diagnosis, would shape an entirely new model of care — one that’s now being studied and shared around the world.

Read more about Guided by the Sun: Michael Okun’s Bold Vision for a Parkinson’s-Free Future.

Okun joins seven other faculty across campus selected for the designation this year. He is only the fifth faculty member from the College of Medicine to receive this honor.

Okun currently serves as the Adelaide Lackner Distinguished Professor of Neurology at the UF College of Medicine and director of the Norman Fixel Institute for Neurological Diseases at UF Health.

In his lecture to the UF Faculty Senate, Dr. Okun presented “Journey to the Center of the Brain and Back,” where he shared insights into his pioneering work in neurology.

“I love this university, I love the people here and I love what I do,” Okun said during his presentation. “I feel gratitude every day, but especially today, for the opportunity to occupy a position as a Distinguished Professor here at the University of Florida.”

In a study using blood samples of patients with Parkinson’s disease and a control group, the research team, led by graduate research assistant Adithya Gopinath and Habibeh Khoshbouei, Pharm.D., Ph.D., unexpectedly observed that monocytes of people with Parkinson’s expressed significantly greater amounts of tyrosine hydroxylase, or TH, per monocyte, a type of white blood cell, than those of healthy controls, according to the paper.

In addition, the team reported that an inflammatory substance called tumor necrosis factor, or TNF, appears to be linked to a rise in TH expression in human monocytes. TNF has previously been shown to be increased in the brain and peripheral circulation of people with Parkinson’s disease.

Collaborating with the labs of Malú Tansey, Ph.D., co-director of UF’s Center for Translational Research in Neurodegenerative Disease, and Michael Okun, M.D., executive director of the Norman Fixel Institute for Neurological Diseases at UF Health, the team further described that by inhibiting TNF with an experimental drug, XPro1595, TH levels in monocytes return to normal, thus showing a link between inflammation and TH levels in monocytes. XPro1595, or pegipanermin, was co-invented by Tansey and is currently being tested separately in a Phase 1b clinical trial led by INmune Bio and funded by the Alzheimer’s Association.

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An internationally recognized expert in movement disorders — particularly in the exploration of non-motor basal ganglia brain features — Okun is the recipient of the 2021 College of Medicine Clinical Science Research Award. This award recognizes outstanding research that has a close connection to clinical medicine and/or a significant impact on the delivery of patient care. He is a professor and chair of the Department of Neurology and director of the Norman Fixel Institute for Neurological Diseases.

With an expertise in developing informatic tools and systems, Bian is the recipient of the 2021 UF College of Medicine Basic Science Research Award. This award recognizes exceptional research that contributes to the understanding of the fundamental underlying principles of biology and medicine. Bian is an associate professor in the Department of Health Outcomes & Biomedical Informatics and a member of the UF Health Cancer Center, focusing on machine learning, causal AI, natural language processing, network science, ontology development and evaluation, semantic web technology and software engineering.

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The three distinct neurodegenerative disorders — Parkinson’s disease; multiple system atrophy Parkinsonian variant, or MSAp; and progressive supranuclear palsy, or PSP — can be difficult to differentiate because they share overlapping motor and non-motor features, such as changes in gait. But they also have important differences in pathology and prognosis, and obtaining an accurate diagnosis is key to determining the best possible treatment for patients as well as developing improved therapies of the future. Previous research has shown that the accuracy of diagnosis in early Parkinson’s can be as low as 58%, and more than half of misdiagnosed patients actually have one of the two variants.

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In an article published in the journal JAMA Neurology, Dr. Melissa J Armstrong and Dr. Michael S Okun argue that it is ‘Time for a new image of Parkinson’s disease’ that more accurately reflects the varied experiences of the people with the condition.

“Sir William Richard Gowers’ 1886 Parkinson’s disease sketch shows an older gentleman who appears somewhat frail and hunched,” says Armstrong, associate professor in neurology at the University of Florida Health Norman Fixel Institute for Neurological Diseases, US, and director of the Mangurian Clinical-Research Center for Lewy Body and Parkinson’s Disease Dementia, US.

As the executive director of the Norman Fixel Institute for Neurological Diseases at UF Health and a professor and chair of Neurology, Okun has seen the beauty of human interaction in medical care.

In 1993, Okun was a second-year medical student at UF who was passionate about helping people heal. His undergraduate degree was in history and he had written creative works prior to attending medical school.

“I was so hungry for patient care when I was stuck in the lecture halls viewing outdated dusty slides on an old-fashioned carousel,” Okun said. “I saw clinical medicine as a path to impacting lives and I could not wait to get in the units.”

PD Wise, a hub for sharing personal stories, experiences, and wisdom gained from people living with Parkinson’s, interviewed Dr. Okun were he shared his experience as an expert in the topic.

Now, UF neurologists Melissa Armstrong, M.D. and Michael S. Okun, M.D. have worked with a medical illustrator to create a new, more diverse representation of who is affected by Parkinson diesease, and how. The image was unveiled today in a new JAMA Neurology article.

“It was kind of shocking to look online and find that if you type into a web browser, ‘Parkinson disease image’ still, the most common image you see in is this picture from 1886,” said Armstrong, an associate professor in the UF College of Medicine’s department of neurology.

That stunning growth curve foreshadows bankruptcy for many health-care systems, said Dr. Michael Okun, of the Fixel Institute of Neurological Diseases and a leading international expert on Parkinson’s. He is one of four authors of the authoritative new book “Ending Parkinson’s: A Prescription for Change.”

That bleak future can be brightened if the Parkinson’s community organizes and forces changes like those in successful campaigns against polio, HIV and breast cancer.