Michael L Krychman, MD - UCI Health

Dr. Claire Henchcliffe is a board-certified UCI Health neurologist who specializes in the diagnosis and treatment of movement disorders. She has more than 20 years of experience treating patients with Parkinson's disease and related conditions.She earned her medical degree at the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Columbia University in New York City. She completed an internal medicine internship and neurology residency at New York Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center, followed by a movement disorders fellowship at Columbia University Medical Center.She previously earned a doctorate in philosophy from the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom and completed a postdoctoral fellowship in genetics at the University of Cambridge and UC Berkeley.Prior to becoming chair of the UCI School of Medicine's Department of Neurology, Henchcliffe served as Weill Cornell Medicine's vice-chair for clinical neurology research and chief of neurodegenerative disorders, and as the attending neurologist at New York Presbyterian Hospital, both in New York City.An internationally recognized clinician and scientist in neurological disorders, Henchcliffe's research is focused on developing new treatments for Parkinson's disease, including stem cell-based regenerative therapy and gene therapy. At Weill Cornell Medicine, she led a clinical trials network team as part of the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) initiative to improve treatment for neurological diseases in partnership with academia, private foundations and industry.She has published in many peer-reviewed journals and has made presentations at national and international conferences on Parkinson's disease and, most recently, on stem-cell therapies and biomarker development.

Dr. Brian D. Hitt is a board-certified UCI Health behavioral neurologist who specializes in the diagnosis and management of Alzheimer's disease and other cognitive and memory disorders.He earned his medical degree at Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago, Ill. He completed both a neurology residency and a fellowship in cognitive and behavioral neurology at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, Texas. He holds a PhD in cell and molecular neuroscience from Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill., and completed a postdoctoral fellowship studying tau protein seeding activity as a biomarker at the Center for Alzheimer's and Neurodegenerative Diseases at University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center.Hitt has a conducted extensive basic research into the cellular and molecular mechanisms of Alzheimer's and related neurodegenerative diseases. His current research interests include bench-to-bedside translational studies to develop novel diagnostic and therapeutic ways to target the tau protein, which is involved in the pathology of Alzheimer's and several other neurodegenerative diseases.