Dr. Michael Sommerauer

My field of interest as a clinician scientist are sleep-wake disorders in neurodegenerative diseases with a special focus on Parkinson’s disease and REM sleep behavior disorder. I use multimodal imaging combining MRI and PET with quantitative sleep analysis and clinical phenotyping of motor and cognitive performance in individuals with Parkinson’s disease as well as in its early – prodromal – phases. For the past years, my group has identified a local cohort of individuals with isolated REM sleep behavior disorder, resulting in one of the biggest cohorts in Germany. Here, we are following a new focus on early diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers for Parkinson’s disease, utilizing both digital tools and biological samples. We also investigate non-pharmacologic interventions as potential disease-modifying therapies in the early phase.