The Team Behind the Science Expertise to Move Research Forward

Prof. Wolfgang H. Oertel is an internationally renowned neurologist and Parkinson’s disease researcher whose career has spanned more than four decades of basic, translational, and clinical neuroscience. His work has contributed substantially to understanding the neural circuits affected in Parkinson’s disease and, more recently, to identifying and studying the earliest, prodromal stages of the disorder.

After completing his medical studies in Berlin, Germany, he received research training in the neurosciences at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, MD, USA, from 1978 to 1981 and specialist training in neurology in Munich, Germanyand at Queen Square in London, Great Britain. In 1990 Prof. Oertel was appointed Professor of Neurology at Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich. From 1996 to 2014, he served as Professor and Chair of Neurology at the University of Marburg. In 2014 he was awarded the distinguished Hertie Senior Research Professorship at the same institution. Throughout his career, Prof. Oertel has combined scientific leadership with the development of major research structures and networks. In 2000, he initiated the Hertie Institute for Clinical Brain Research in Tübingen, Germany, and played a central role in securing the funding required for its establishment. He has founded and led major German Parkinson research networks such as the “German Parkinson Study Group” and the “German Competence Network Parkinson”. He served as President of the German Society of Neurology and from 2014 to 2023 (president 2022-2023) at the European Brain Council in Brussels for the European Union. In 2025 the German Society of Neurology awarded Prof. Oertel the prestigious distinction for “Outstanding Contributions to German Neurology”.

A particular emphasis in his work has continuously been the successful promotion and training of excellent early-careerresearcher.

A central focus of his research is the earliest phase of Parkinson’s disease, particularly REM sleep behavior disorder (RBD), one of the strongest clinical indicators of future Parkinson’s disease and related synucleinopathies. His overarching goal is to enable intervention before irreversible neurological damage has occurred and ultimately to develop treatments capable of slowing or preventing disease progression.

As Managing Director of ParkinsonFonds Deutschland, Prof. Oertel also brings extensive experience in evaluating research proposals and directing philanthropic funding toward promising Parkinson’s research. As a Director of American Friends of ParkinsonFonds Deutschland, he provides the scientific vision and strategic guidance needed to identify projects with the potential to transform biological understanding into earlier diagnosis, more effective, in particular disease modifying treatment, and meaningful progress for people affected by Parkinson’s disease and Lewy body dementia.