Fereshtehnejad Lab
Dr. Sam Fereshtehnejad
Principal Investigator
Dr. Seyed-Mohammad (Sam) Fereshtehnejad is a movement disorders neurologist and clinician-scientist with international training across Iran, Sweden, and Canada. He is an Assistant Professor in the Division of Neurology at the University of British Columbia (UBC) and a member of the Pacific Parkinson’s Research Centre (PPRC). His clinical and research work focuses on Parkinson’s disease and related neurodegenerative disorders, with particular emphasis on early and prodromal disease stages, including REM sleep behavior disorder and other high-risk populations for synucleinopathies. His research program integrates translational biomarker discovery, neuroimaging, and data-driven methods to understand disease heterogeneity and progression.
Dr. Fereshtehnejad received his MD from Iran University of Medical Sciences, where he concurrently completed a Master of Public Health (MPH). He later completed a Master of Science (MSc) in Medical Education at Tehran University of Medical Sciences. He completed his PhD in Clinical Neuroscience and Neuroepidemiology at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden, followed by postdoctoral research at McGill University. He subsequently completed neurology residency training at the University of Ottawa and Movement Disorders fellowship training at the University of Toronto, where he also completed a Master of Health Informatics.
Dr. Fereshtehnejad has authored nearly 300 peer-reviewed publications with over 170,000 citations and an h-index in the 80s. He is actively involved in international research collaborations and consortia focused on Parkinson’s disease epidemiology, biomarkers, and precision medicine, and is committed to advancing translational research and training the next generation of clinician-scientists in neurodegeneration with focus on early detection and prevention.
Current Research
Interplay of Neurodegenerative Co-Pathologies
While many people living with Parkinson’s disease (PD) also exhibit symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease (AD), the interaction between the two conditions remains poorly understood. Examining this relationship may help explain why some people living with PD experience faster cognitive decline or disease progression than others.
This study will use data from the Parkinson’s Progression Markers Initiative, a large international study designed to identify and characterize biological indicators, or biomarkers, of PD. This data set includes thousands of people with early Parkinson’s disease and those at high risk.
We will analyze brain scans and fluid samples from the data set of up to 3000 participants collected over 5–10 years. We will compare biomarkers related to Alzheimer’s disease with clinical measures of Parkinson’s disease and examine how they relate. Specifically, we will evaluate levels of two proteins, amyloid and tau, which have been associated with cognitive decline in people living with Alzheimer’s. We expect to identify groups of people who show signs of both Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s changes and to understand how these changes relate to brain changes and disease progression. Ultimately, this project seeks to advance our understanding of biomarkers of disease in individuals in the prodromal and the early stages of PD. Results may improve early diagnosis, contribute to policymaking, and guide future clinical trials.
Pan-Canadian RBD Cohort
Recent Publications
Grillo P, Riboldi GM, Pisani A, Kang UJ, Fereshtehnejad SM. Faster reaction times of CSF alpha-synuclein seed amplification assay predict the diffuse malignant subtype of Parkinson's disease at 10-year follow-up. Journal of Parkinson's Disease. February 2026;16(2):233-245. doi:10.1177/1877718X261417468.
Fereshtehnejad SM. Skin-based α-synuclein deposits detection across the prodromal continuum of synucleinopathies: Updated evidence and perspectives. Biomolecules. March 2026;16(3):376. doi:10.3390/biom16030376.
Cramer MD, Fereshtehnejad SM, et al. Disease-duration-specific percentiles for prospective subtyping of Parkinson's disease: A PPMI-based study. Movement Disorders. March 2025. doi:10.1002/mdc3.70740.
Fereshtehnejad SM, Keshavjee K, Coyte PC. Economic evaluation of a digital health intervention for preventing dementia in Canadians with mild cognitive impairment. Frontiers in Public Health. July 2025;13:1631676. doi:10.3389/fpubh.2025.1631676.
Fereshtehnejad SM, Lökk J. Healthcare complexities in neurodegenerative proteinopathies: A narrative review. Healthcare. July 2025;13(15):1873. doi:10.3390/healthcare13151873.