Peggy hit it right on the head as usual. To me "cure" is a misnomer. Good as a slogan for fundraising but not descriptive of what will most like occur if we are lucky.

The way I think about it, Unlike infections and many other diseases that have been cured by medical miracles of the 20th century, PD is a long term chronic illness that is a result of combinations of environmental challenges and genetic vulnerabilities that wear on your body to varying degrees and at some point become manifest (like when 80% of your dopamine neurons are non functional) as a disease. Once you reach the downward slope its all you can do to slow the decline by doing things to strengthen your self (through diet, exercise, habits like rest ). Medicines which help symptoms may cause other harm (side effects).

In this general context "cure" can be thought of as a process of healing, which gives the patient a more active role in the process as a partner with a knowledgeable professional (the doc) to help interpret information and advise on actions and provide access to more powerful and hence potentially more dangerous treatments. This is a different model of doctor-patient relationship than the traditional Doctor as all knowing keeper of the cure.

This patient centered model of the healing process is needed to orient our selves toward better health or "growing old dis-gracefully" as my Pa-in-law, an old fashioned Doc himself, used to say.

That said, I think Peg is also correct about the value of amassing huge data bases such as Google is famous for, which will be Sergey's biggest contribution. Those of you who know me, have heard me talking about electronic medical records and inter-operable data exchange standards for many years as strategies for both knowledge and system development and both necessary to deliver the "cure". But this is a topic for another day.

Perry