Trond Riise’s research has been related to epidemiological studies of neurological diseases including Parkinson’s disease and multiple sclerosis. The focus has been to identify environmental factors that, by their own or in combinations, significantly change the disease risk. Dr. Riise has an extensive collaboration with researchers at Harvard University, where he previously was a visiting professor. He is also currently a core investigator of the Center for Parkinson Precision Neurology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard University. Riise has also been a visiting professor at the Universities of Ferrara and Bologna, Italy. Riise’s international collaborators are key researchers in this Neuro-SysMed project. Dr. Riise is Head of Research of a comprehensive drug-screening project which involves screening of all prescriptions given to all Norwegians since 2004. These prescriptions (about 800 mill) are linked to the incidence of Parkinson’s disease (PD), amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and multiple sclerosis (MS). The overall objective of the project is to evaluate whether existing drugs (molecules) can be repurposed as effective treatment of PD, ALS and MS.

The group is introducing an initial screening phase in humans that will form the basis for new hypotheses that in a second phase will be tested and validated in mechanistic experiments using human iPSC-derived neurons and animal models. This approach might be referred to as “inverse translational research” and represents a novel use of Norwegian health registries.

Selected Key Publications

1. Antonazzo IC, Poluzzi E, Forcesi E, Riise T, Bjørnevik K, Baldin E, Muratori L, De Ponti F, Raschi E. Liver injury with drugs used for multiple sclerosis: A contemporary analysis of the FDA Adverse Event Reporting System. Multiple Sclerosis 2019;25:1633-40.
2. Olsen AL, Riise T, Scherzer C. Promise for Parkinson’s: Discovering new benefits from old drugs with big data. Editorial. JAMA Neurology 2018;75(8):917-20.
3. Cortese M, Riise T, Engeland A, Ascherio A, Bjørnevik K. Urate and the risk of Parkinson’s disease in men and women. Parkinsonism and Related Disorders 2018;52:76-82.
4. Mittal S, Bjørnevik K, Im DS, Flierl A, Dong X, Locascio JJ, Abo KM, Long E, Jin M, Xu B, Xiang YK, Rochet JC, Engeland A, Rizzu P, Heutink P, Bartels T, Selkoe DJ, Caldarone BJ , Glicksman MA, Khurana V, Schüle B, Park DS, Riise T, Scherzer CR. β2-Adrenoreceptor is a Regulator of the α-Synuclein Gene Driving Risk of Parkinson’s Disease. Science 2017;357:891-8.