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27 What is remarkable is that tears are always available, even more so than collecting blood. “Our Parkinson’s patients have rated collection of tears as far preferable than venous or finger-prick blood collection, let alone cerebral spinal fluid,” says John. One participant suggested, “You’ll get a few tears if you collect my CSF, but could we start with just the tears first?” The early results from people with Parkinson’s have been excellent. John says, “PhD student Jemima Ganderton has been optimising analytic procedures and has made excellent inroads. Large differences in alpha-synuclein aggregation have already been found between Parkinson’s and age-matched controls.” There’s a lot more work to be done, more biomarkers to examine, and comparisons with Alzheimer’s to progress. Vlad will have to wait. Research group key members: University of Canterbury, Professor John Dalrymple-Alford &Dr Vanessa Morris University of Otago, Associate Professor JoannaWilliams & Professor TimAnderson University of Auckland, Professor Lynette Tippett& Dr Erin Cawston