K1-researcher as representative of the future of Bergen

In an article in Bergens Tidende 20.10.13, neurologist and researcher Charalampos Tzoulis was chosen as one of forty-seven individuals representing Bergen’s future.

Dopamine transporter (DAT) imaging shows the uptake of a radioactive tracer in the nigrostriatal terminals (bright areas). This reflects the integrity and density of the dopaminergic neurons in the substantia nigra. Patients with POLG mutations (C) have severe nigrostriatal degeneration, which is more pronounced than even in patients with Parkinson's disease (B). The scan of a healthy person (A) is shown for comparison. Tzoulis et al., Brain 2013.

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By Eli Synnøve VidhammerPublished: 24.10.2013

Charalampos (Haris) Tzoulis is a neurologist at the Department of Neurology, Haukeland University Hospital and postdoctoral researcher at the Mitochondrial Medicine & Neurogenetics (MMN) group, University of Bergen, led by prof. Laurence A. Bindoff (for more information see: https://www.uib.no/rg/mitochondrial_medicine).

Dr Tzoulis’ clinical practice and research activities are focused on the fields of neurogenetics (hereditary neurological disease) and common movement disorders and neurodegenerative diseases such as dystonia and Parkinson’s disease.

As a PhD and later postdoctoral fellow at the MMN research group, Tzoulis has produced high quality translational research linking basic science to clinical practice and elucidating novel and important aspects of common and debilitating neurological disorders including mitochondrial disease and Parkinson’s disease. At the clinic, he runs an expert service dedicated to the diagnosis and treatment of patients with dystonia and other movement disorders.

Originally from Greece, Tzoulis came to Norway in 2003 and has since lived and worked in Bergen. He considers the clinical and research environment at the Department of Neurology to be welcoming as well as highly competitive and stimulating. His ambitions include building in Bergen an interdisciplinary, state-of-the-art clinical and research unit dedicated to the study and treatment of hereditary (neurogenetic) and age-related (neurodegenerative) neurological disorders including ataxia, dystonia and Parkinson’s disease.

-Never before has the need for highly specialized care and better treatment options for these patients been greater or more urgent, says Tzoulis. It will be of great benefit for both patients and the society to strengthen the health care and local research environment in this field.

See the BT article here (Norwegian).