Charles K. Meshul, Ph.D, a member of CODA’s Board of Directors, has been awarded OHSU’s Festival of Lights Award for his research on Parkinson’s disease.
Meshul is a professor in the Oregon Health & Science University’s Department of Behavioral Neuroscience and Pathology, and Research Biologist and Director of the Electron Microscopy Facility at the Portland Veterans Administration Medical Center.
The Festival of Lights award is presented every year at OHSU to recognize neuroscience research in the preceding year that is both innovative and important to efforts to understand and treat diseases of the nervous system.
Meshul’s work examines the effectiveness of both exercise and compounds called ‘hydroxyflavones’ (ingredients found in fresh fruits/vegetables) as useful interventions in the progressive deficits that occur in a mouse model of Parkinson’s disease. He found that both treatments improved the motor/physical ability of the mice and in some instances lead to a blockade of the progression of the disease.