The HOPES Timeline (Non-Flash, Part 3)

A Brief History of Huntington's Disease

Scenes 11-15

Late 1950s

Arvid Carlsson and Oleh Hornykiewicz, two European scientists, make the breakthrough discovery that dopamine pathways between neurons are destroyed in Parkinson´s disease patients. Since the symptoms of Parkinson´s disease are nearly the opposite of those of HD, the scientists hypothesize that decreasing HD patients´ dopamine levels might be a key step in treating the disease.

1966

The first Department of Neurobiology is established at Harvard University. Ntinos Myrianthopoulous writes a review article decrying the lack of knowledge of HD.

1967

Famous poet and songwriter Woody Guthrie dies of HD. Guthrie´s wife, Marjorie, creates the Committee to Combat Huntington´s Disease (CCHD), now called the Huntington´s Disease Society of America (HDSA), to provide public health outreach on HD.

1970

The Society for Neuroscience (SFN) is a nonprofit organization dedicated to study of the brain and nervous system. SFN, founded in 1970, has grown from 500 members to more than 36,000. Society of Neuroscience is the world's largest organization of scientists devoted to the study of the brain.

1972

The International Centennial Symposium on Huntington´s Disease is held on the hundredth anniversary of George Huntington´s historic publication (See 1872). The Symposium aims to gather all HD researchers and assess the current state of knowledge, generating new optimism for HD research.

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Last Modified: 04/12/2007

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