Professor Nobutaka Hattori
Chairman and Professor of Neurology, and Dean of Faculty of Medicine, Juntendo University Tokyo

Professor Hattori has been a world expert in Parkinson's Disease (PD) for over 30 years. He is currently chairman and Professor of Neurology at Juntendo University Tokyo, and holds the role of the Dean of Faculty of Medicine of Juntendo University.

Prof. Hattori's has been involved in research about the molecular mechanisms of PD since 1989. His colleague and he found a decrease in the amount of complex I in the substantia nigra of PD patients. Furthermore, they identified the disease gene for an autosomal recessive form of young-onset familial PD, and named the gene as “parkin”. This was the second form of familial PD in which the disease gene was identified. Also, they found that the gene product, parkin, is directly linked to ubiquitin-proteasome pathway as a ubiquitin ligase. This discovery suggested that the protein degradation system is involved in the pathogenesis of not only monogenic form PD but also sporadic PD. Recently, they detected a novel mutation of familial PD, named "CHCHD2" in 2015. This new gene, CHCHD2, may be a model of sporadic PD.

When it comes to patient care, he and his colleagues provide not only medical and surgical treatment for patients with PD, but also several approaches including rehabilitation and supporting patient groups, and is an advisor of the Japan Parkinson Disease Association. They started the telemedicine for seeing remote patients in 2017.

Since 2019, in addition to his two roles (chairman of the department and dean), Prof. Hattori also meets with an average of 80 outpatients and 70 inpatients every week as a clinical neurological expert.

As for global activities, he served as a chair from 2015–2017 for the Asia and Oceania region of the International Movement Disorder Society (MDS-AOS). His goal in the treatment of Parkinson's disease patients is not only medication but the use of mental support and/or rehabilitation. Prof. Hattori aims at the improvement of the QOL with treatment that is comprehensive, by supporting the patient's society including patients and caregivers.