World Parkinson Congress names 12 hot topics for Phoenix meeting

By AI, Created 5:04 PM UTC, May 18, 2026, /AGP/ – The 7th World Parkinson Congress has picked 12 Hot Topics presentations for its May 24-27 meeting in Phoenix, spotlighting new Parkinson’s findings from researchers and clinicians worldwide. Organizers say the selections were drawn from more than 900 submissions and will cover care, diagnosis, genetics, imaging and emerging therapies.

Why it matters: - The 12 selected talks highlight research that could affect diagnosis, treatment and day-to-day care for people living with Parkinson’s disease. - The program underscores how the global Parkinson’s field is pushing on both basic science and practical care gaps at the same time. - WPC 2026 expects more than 4,000 delegates in Phoenix, giving the findings a broad audience of researchers, clinicians, patients and advocates.

What happened: - The World Parkinson Coalition announced 12 Hot Topics presentations for the 7th World Parkinson Congress. - The congress runs May 24-27, 2026, in Phoenix, Arizona. - The selected authors include rising-star researchers, senior clinicians and advocates from multiple countries. - Presenters will deliver the talks orally each morning before the opening plenary, with four presentations per day.

The details: - World Parkinson Coalition leadership, including more than 50 reviewers, evaluated more than 900 submissions before selecting the final 12 abstracts. - The talks cover basic science, clinical science, therapeutics and care. - The topics include hospital medication timing for Parkinson’s patients, prodromal disease prediction, cutaneous phosphorylated alpha-synuclein detection, dopamine transporter PET imaging, amyamygdala-predominant Lewy body disease, air pollution and neurotoxicity, genetic risk and microglia states, mitochondrial function in an LBD marmoset model, early GDNF gene therapy research, lysosomal pathway expression, reactive stepping, and robot-assisted transplantation of hypoimmune iPSC-derived dopaminergic progenitor cells. - The selected presenters and their topics are: Jake Plagenz on medication administration timing in hospitalized patients; Ashvin Kuri on prodromal disease algorithms in PREDICT-PD; Christopher Gibbons on the syn-sleep study; Nicolaas Bohnen on whole-brain [11C]-PE2I PET imaging; Natasja Deshayes on amygdala-predominant Lewy body disease; Emeline Barbier on ultrafine particles from air pollution; Raphael Kubler on Parkinson’s genetic risk and microglia transcriptional states; Tetsuya Hirato on α-synuclein pathology and mitochondrial function; Esther Labib-Kiyarash on patients’ and caregivers’ perspectives on AB-1005 gene therapy; Janna van Wetering on lysosomal pathway expression and disease severity; Emily Tobin on resting-state functional connectivity and reactive stepping; and Jiong Shi on robot-assisted transplantation of hypoimmune iPSC-derived dopaminergic progenitor cells. - The World Parkinson Coalition said more information on the abstracts is available at the scientific program. - The organization also invited people to contact Julie@worldpdcoalition.org to connect with authors or set up interviews.

Between the lines: - The selection process signals where Parkinson’s research is moving: toward earlier detection, more precise biomarkers, and therapies that aim to change disease pathways rather than just manage symptoms. - The mix of hospital care, environmental exposure, genetics, imaging and cell therapy suggests the field is widening beyond traditional neurology questions. - The inclusion of patients’ and caregivers’ perspectives on gene therapy shows the congress is also elevating lived experience, not just laboratory data.

What’s next: - The 12 authors will present their findings during the four-day congress in Phoenix. - The talks will likely feed discussion in plenaries, workshops and roundtables across the meeting. - The World Parkinson Coalition will continue to use WPC 2026 as a platform for research exchange, care improvements and advocacy around Parkinson’s disease.

The bottom line: - WPC 2026 is using its top-tier abstract selection to showcase the most talked-about Parkinson’s research in one place, with an emphasis on practical impact and future treatment directions.