The Fanning lab studies the role of the metabolome in neurodegenerative diseases. Our research is motivated by the huge unmet medical need to identify mechanism-based treatments for these complex diseases. We focus on mechanistic understanding of disease, principally Parkinson’s disease and Lewy Body Dementia, integrating genetic and pharmacological approaches in multiple cellular systems, patient-derived neurons and other models of disease with the goal of identifying novel targets for therapeutic intervention. Our analysis of lipid and fatty acid homeostasis in Parkinson’s disease led us to identify Stearoyl-CoA desaturase (SCD) as a therapeutic target, an intervention now being investigated in clinical trials.