The underlying causes for neurodegenerative disease are still largely unknown but there is clear evidence that genetic risk factors play an important role. The identification of such genetic risk factors provides us with important starting points to study the molecular processes that lead to disease as they act at the very beginning of the disease process. The research focus of the group is therefore to identify genetic risk factors for neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease, Frontal-Temporal Dementia/Motor Neuron Disease, Progressive Supranuclear Palsy and Ataxia in close collaboration with the clinical partners and to characterize the biological consequences of these mutations and risk factors by using molecular biology and genomic approaches.