Michael A. Schwarzschild, MD, PhD, is a neurologist at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and Professor of Neurology at Harvard Medical School in Boston, United States. Dr. Schwarzschild’s research investigates genetic and environmental factors linked to Parkinson’s disease and translates insights gained from laboratory models to clinical trials.
Dr. Schwarzschild completed undergraduate training in biochemistry at Princeton University. He went on to medical, and graduated neuroscience training at Harvard Medical School to write his PhD thesis on the neurochemistry of tyrosine hydroxylase, the enzyme controlling dopamine biosynthesis. His neurology residency and Parkinson’s disease fellowship training were at Mass General Hospital.
Since 1996 Dr. Schwarzschild has directed the Molecular Neurobiology Laboratory at Massachusetts General Hospital, focusing on the role of three purines, adenosine, caffeine, and urate, in Parkinson’s disease. Through cross-disciplinary collaboration, his team demonstrated that the antioxidant urate can serve as a predictor of Parkinson’s progression as well as risk, and that it confers protection in lab models. His laboratory discovered the neuroprotective properties of adenosine A2A receptor blockers (including caffeine) in PD models. His leadership of international academic-industry conferences on brain A2A receptors helped foster further development of A2A blockers, one of which received FDA approval in 2019 to treat Parkinson’s.
Dr. Schwarzschild has been the recipient of a Cotzias Fellowship from the American Parkinson’s Disease Association and a Paul Beeson Physician Faculty Scholar Award. He has led disease progression studies of the PSG, a consortium of North American clinical trial sites and investigators dedicated to finding improved treatments for Parkinson’s disease.
Since 2012, Dr. Schwarzschild has co-led the Parkinson Study Group (PSG), a network of North American Parkinson’s trialists dedicated to improving therapy for people with Parkinson’s disease.