Dr. Amanda Woerman, current Family Research Scholar and assistant professor of biology, has been awarded a five-year, $2.8 million National Institutes of Health grant to study the molecular mechanisms underlying multiple system atrophy. Dr. Woerman. along with Dr. Jason Bartz, professor and chair of medical microbiology and immunology at Creighton University, seek to advance understanding of the biochemical roots of Parkinson’s disease and other synucleinopathies, which affect more than 6.8 million Americans.