Oksana Suchowersky

Portrait of Oksana Suchowersky

Professor

8-39 Medical Sciences Building
Phone 780-407-8315
Fax 780-407-6845
Email: suchower@ualberta.ca  

Professor (with Tenure) Depts. of Medicine (Neurology), Medical Genetics, Pediatrics and Psychiatry, U of Alberta 2010 - present

ACADEMIC RECORD
B.Sc. (Hon) University of Alberta 1973 in Biology
M.Sc. University of British Columbia 1975 in Zoology (Genetics)
M.D. University of Calgary 1978
Residency - Internal Medicine and Neurology, 1978-1983 Fellowship - Medical Genetics and Movement Disorders, 1983-84

AWARDS AND DISTINCTIONS (abbreviated)

  • Established first Movement Disorders Program in Alberta in 1983 and remained Director until 2005
  • Original member of the Parkinson Study Group in 1985, and continue to be active, with completion of multiple clinical trials completed
  • Member of the Huntington Study Group since 1990, active in multiple clinical trials and ENROLL-HD
  • Royal College Lecturer, Lethbridge, 1988
  • Gold Star Teaching Award, 1997 – U of Calgary
  • Visiting Professor, Annual Meetings of the Indian Academy of Neurology, India 1999, 2009 and 2014
  • Star Award for Excellence in Research, University of Calgary, 2002
  • Best Doctors in Canada, 2003, 2007-2008, 2011-2012
  • Visiting Professor, Manila Phillipines
  • Toupin Research Chair in Neurology, University of Alberta, 2010 - 2020
  • Co-chair, Precision Health Alberta, Alberta Health Network 2-15-2020, and now member Precision Health Signature Area, U of Alberta
  • Visiting Professor, Movement Disorders Society, Kyiv, Ukraine 2017

EDUCATION

  • Graduate Students – 13 in total from 2000- present
  • Post Doctoral Fellows – 30 in total from 1997- present.  Now faculty in Canada, US, Phillipines, India and Ukraine
  • Undergraduate Students – 12 in total from 2000-present
  • Other Mentorship – 11 junior faculty from 2006- present

Dr. Suchowersky's research investigates the genetic basis for heritable disorders such as Huntington disease, spinocerebellar ataxia and hereditary spastic paraparesis. She is also involved in research studying genetic therapies for these disorders.

Dr. Suchowersky is part of the Parkinson and Huntington Study Groups,  international research groups which conduct studies in Parkinson Disease and Huntington disease,  involved in identifying biomarkers and genetic therapies for thse and related disorders.

Dr. Suchowersky has published more than 260 articles in peer-reviewed scientific journals. She is co-editor of several books, including Hyperkinetic Movement Disorders.


 

  1. McColgan P, Thobhani A, Boak L,et al and , Doody R; GENERATION HD1 Investigators. Tominersen in Adults with Manifest Huntington's Disease (Suchowersky). N Engl J Med. 2023 Dec 7;389(23):2203-2205. doi: 10.1056/NEJMc2300400. PMID: 38055260. 

  2. Vollstedt EJ, Schaake S, Lohmann K, t al, Suchowersky O, Riess O, Das P, Mollenhauer B, Gatto EM, Petersen MS, Hattori N, Wu RM, Illarioshkin SN, Valente EM, Aasly JO, Aasly A, Alcalay RN, Thaler A, Farrer MJ, Brockmann K, Corvol JC, Klein C; MJFF Global Genetic Parkinson's Disease Study Group. Embracing Monogenic Parkinson's Disease: The MJFF Global Genetic PD Cohort. Mov Disord. 2023 Feb;38(2):286-303. doi: 10.1002/mds.29288. Epub 2023 Jan 24. PMID: 36692014. 

  3. Pal G, Cook L, Schulze J, Verbrugge J, …Suchowersky O, Mencacci NE, Simuni T, Saunders-Pullman R, Klein C. Genetic Testing in Parkinson's Disease. Mov Disord. 2023 Aug;38(8):1384-1396. doi: 10.1002/mds.29500. Epub 2023 Jun 27. PMID: 37365908; PMCID: PMC10946878. 

  4. Feigin A, Evans EE, Fisher TL, et al; Huntington Study Group SIGNAL investigators (Suchowersky). Pepinemab antibody blockade of SEMA4D in early Huntington's disease: a randomized, placebo-controlled, phase 2 trial. Nat Med. 2022 Oct;28(10):2183-2193. doi: 10.1038/s41591-022-01919-8. Epub 2022 Aug 8. Erratum in: Nat Med. 2024 Feb;30(2):606. doi: 10.1038/s41591-022-02070-0. PMID: 35941373; PMCID: PMC9361919. 

  5. Reilmann R, Anderson KE, Feigin A, Tabrizi SJ, Leavitt BR, Stout JC, Piccini P, Schubert R, Loupe P, Wickenberg A, Borowsky B, Rynkowski G, Volkinshtein R, Li T, Savola JM, Hayden M, Gordon MF; LEGATO-HD Study Group.  (Suchowersky) Safety and efficacy of laquinimod for Huntington's disease (LEGATO-HD): a multicentre, randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled, phase 2 study. Lancet Neurol. 2024 Mar;23(3):243-255. doi: 10.1016/S1474-4422(23)00454-4. Epub 2024 Jan 24. PMID: 38280392. 

  6. Taher J, Naranian T, Poon YY, Merola A, Mestre T, Suchowersky O, Kulasingam V, Fasano A. Vitamins and Infusion of Levodopa-Carbidopa Intestinal Gel. Can J Neurol Sci. 2022 Jan;49(1):19-28. doi: 10.1017/cjn.2021.78. Epub 2021 Apr 20. PMID: 33875038. 

  7. Vollstedt EJ, Madoev H, Aasly A, … Suchowersky O, Tan AH, Termsarasab P, Thaler A, Tumas V, Valente EM, van de Warrenburg B, Williams-Gray CH, Wu RM, Zhang B, Zimprich A, Solle J, Padmanabhan S, Klein C. Establishing an online resource to facilitate global collaboration and inclusion of underrepresented populations: Experience from the MJFF Global Genetic Parkinson's Disease Project. PLoS One. 2023 Oct 3;18(10):e0292180. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0292180. PMID: 37788254; PMCID: PMC10547150. 

  8. Saunders-Pullman R, Raymond D, Ortega RA, Shalash A, Gatto E, Salari M, Markgraf M, Alcalay RN, Mascalzoni D, Mencacci NE, Bonifati V, Merello M, Chung SJ, Novakovic I, Bardien S, Pal G, Hall A, Hattori N, Lynch T, Thaler A, Sue CM, Foroud T, Verbrugge J, Schulze J, Cook L, Marder K, Suchowersky O, Klein C, Simuni T. International Genetic Testing and Counseling Practices for Parkinson's Disease. Mov Disord. 2023 Aug;38(8):1527-1535. doi: 10.1002/mds.29442. Epub 2023 Jun 13. PMID: 37310233; PMCID: PMC10461455. 

  9. Estiar MA, Yu E, Haj Salem I, Ross JP, Mufti K, Akçimen F, Leveille E, Spiegelman D, Ruskey JA, Asayesh F, Dagher A, Yoon G, Tarnopolsky M, Boycott KM, Dupre N, Dion PA, Suchowersky O, Trempe JF, Rouleau GA, Gan-Or Z. Evidence for Non-Mendelian Inheritance in Spastic Paraplegia 7. Mov Disord. 2021 Jul;36(7):1664-1675. doi: 10.1002/mds.28528. Epub 2021 Feb 17. PMID: 33598982. 

  10. . Trufanov Y, Machado de Oliveira L, Svyrydova N, Suchowersky O The Prevalence of Parkinson Disease in Ukraine. Mov Disord Clin Pract. 2023 Feb 16;10(3):524-525. doi: 10.1002/mdc3.13668. Erratum in: Mov Disord Clin Pract. 2024 Aug;11(8):1057. doi: 10.1002/mdc3.14141. PMID: 36949787; PMCID: PMC10026273. 

  11. Cook L, Schulze J, Verbrugge J, Beck JC, Marder KS, Saunders-Pullman R, Klein C, Naito A, Alcalay RN; ClinGen Parkinson's Disease Gene Curation Expert Panel and the MDS Task Force for Recommendations for Genetic Testing in Parkinson's Disease; Clinical Genome Resource (ClinGen) Parkinson's Disease Gene Curation Expert Panel Authors; (Suchowersky)Movement Society Disorder (MDS) Task Force on Recommendations for Clinical Genetic Testing in Parkinson's Disease Authors. The commercial genetic testing landscape for Parkinson's disease. Parkinsonism Relat Disord. 2021 Nov;92:107-111. doi: 10.1016/j.parkreldis.2021.10.001. Epub 2021 Oct 19. PMID: 34696975; PMCID: PMC8633166. 

  12. Varghaei P, Estiar MA, Ashtiani S, Veyron S, Mufti K, Leveille E, Yu E, Spiegelman D, Rioux MF, Yoon G, Tarnopolsky M, Boycott KM, Dupre N, Suchowersky O, Trempe JF, Rouleau GA, Gan-Or Z. Genetic, structural and clinical analysis of spastic paraplegia 4. Parkinsonism Relat Disord. 2022 May;98:62-69. doi: 10.1016/j.parkreldis.2022.03.019. Epub 2022 Apr 16. PMID: 35487127.

  13. Yoo S, Garg E, Elliott LT, Hung RJ, Halevy AR, Brooks JD, Bull SB, Gagnon F, Greenwood C, Lawless JF, Paterson AD, Sun L, Zawati MH, Lerner-Ellis J, Abraham R, Birol I, Bourque G, Garant JM, Gosselin C, Li J, Whitney J, Thiruvahindrapuram B, Herbrick JA, Lorenti M, Reuter MS, Adeoye OO, Liu S, Allen U, Bernier FP, Biggs CM, Cheung AM, Cowan J, Herridge M, Maslove DM, Modi BP, Mooser V, Morris SK, Ostrowski M, Parekh RS, Pfeffer G, Suchowersky O, Taher J, Upton J, Warren RL, Yeung R, Aziz N, Turvey SE, Knoppers BM, Lathrop M, Jones S, Scherer SW, Strug LJ. HostSeq: a Canadian whole genome sequencing and clinical data resource. BMC Genom Data. 2023 May 2;24(1):26. doi: 10.1186/s12863-023-01128-3. PMID: 37131148; PMCID: PMC10152008. 

  14. Suchowersky O, Ashtiani S, Au PB, McLeod S, Estiar MA, Gan-Or Z, Rouleau GA. Hereditary spastic paraplegia initially diagnosed as cerebral palsy. Clin Park Relat Disord. 2021 Nov 3;5:100114. doi: 10.1016/j.prdoa.2021.100114. PMID: 34816117; PMCID: PMC8592889. 

  15. Alshimemeri S, Abo Alsamh D, Zhou L, Furtado S, Kraft S, Bruno V, Duquette A, Brais B, Suchowersky O, Munhoz RP, Slow E. Demographics and Clinical Characteristics of Autosomal Dominant Spinocerebellar Ataxia in Canada. Mov Disord Clin Pract. 2023 Feb 7;10(3):440-451. doi: 10.1002/mdc3.13666. PMID: 36949783; PMCID: PMC10026276. 

  16. Shaikh AG, Beylergil SB, Scorr L, Kilic-Berkmen G, Freeman A, Klein C, Junker J, Loens S, Brüggemann N, Münchau A, Bäumer T, Vidailhet M, Roze E, Bonnet C, Jankovic J, Jimenez-Shahed J, Patel N, Marsh L, Comella C, Barbano RL, Berman BD, Malaty I, Wagle Shukla A, Reich SG, Ledoux MS, Berardelli A, Ferrazzano G, Stover N, Ondo W, Pirio Richardson S, Saunders-Pullman R, Mari Z, Agarwal P, Adler C, Chouinard S, Fox SH, Brashear A, Truong D, Suchowersky O, Frank S, Factor S, Perlmutter J, Jinnah HA. Dystonia and Tremor: A Cross-Sectional Study of the Dystonia Coalition Cohort. Neurology. 2021 Jan 26;96(4):e563-e574. doi: 10.1212/WNL.0000000000011049. Epub 2020 Oct 12. PMID: 33046615; PMCID: PMC7905789. 

  17. Marras C, Mills KA, Eberly S, Oakes D, Chou KL, Halverson M, Parashos SA, Tarolli CG, Lai JS, Nowinsky CJ, Suchowersky O, Farbman ES, Shulman LM, Simuni T. Longitudinal Change in Quality of Life in Neurological Disorders Measures Over 3 Years in Patients with Early Parkinson's Disease. Mov Disord. 2021 Aug;36(8):1979-1983. doi: 10.1002/mds.28641. Epub 2021 May 13. PMID: 33983638; PMCID: PMC8376764. 

  18. Alshimemeri S, Alsaghan L, Alsamh DA, Zhou L, Furtado S, Kraft S, Bruno V, Appel-Cresswell S, Duquette A, Brais B, Suchowersky O, Slow E, Munhoz RP. Rare Spinocerebellar Ataxia Types in Canada: A Case Series and Review of the Literature. Can J Neurol Sci. 2024 Dec 2:1-10. doi: 10.1017/cjn.2024.335. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 39618416. 

  19. Gauquelin L, Hartley T, Tarnopolsky M, Dyment DA, Brais B, Geraghty MT, Tétreault M, Ahmed S, Rojas S, Choquet K, Majewski J, Bernier F, Innes AM, Rouleau G, Suchowersky O, Boycott KM, Yoon G. Channelopathies Are a Frequent Cause of Genetic Ataxias Associated with Cerebellar Atrophy. Mov Disord Clin Pract. 2020 Sep 29;7(8):940-949. doi: 10.1002/mdc3.13086. PMID: 33163565; PMCID: PMC7604675. 

  20. Vekhande C, Hamed M, Tremain G, Mah J, Shetty A, Lazarescu A, Suchowersky O. Levodopa-Carbidopa Intestinal Gel for Parkinson's Disease over 11 years: One Center's "Real-World" Experience. Can J Neurol Sci. 2024 May;51(3):379-386. doi: 10.1017/cjn.2023.251. Epub 2023 Jul 18. PMID: 37462070. 

  21. Feigin A, Evans EE, Fisher TL, Leonard JE, Smith ES, Reader A, Mishra V, Manber R, Walters KA, Kowarski L, Oakes D, Siemers E, Kieburtz KD, Zauderer M; Huntington Study Group SIGNAL investigators. Publisher Correction: Pepinemab antibody blockade of SEMA4D in early Huntington's disease: a randomized, placebo-controlled, phase 2 trial. Nat Med. 2024 Feb;30(2):606. doi: 10.1038/s41591-022-02070-0. Erratum for: Nat Med. 2022 Oct;28(10):2183-2193. doi: 10.1038/s41591-022-01919-8. PMID: 36195687; PMCID: PMC10878960. 

  22. Laugwitz L, Buchert R, Olguín P, Estiar MA, Atanasova M, Jr WM, Enssle J, Marsden B, Avilés J, González-Gutiérrez A, Candia N, Fabiano M, Morlot S, Peralta S, Groh A, Schillinger C, Kuehn C, Sofan L, Sturm M, Bender B, Tomaselli PJ, Diebold U, Mueller AJ, Spranger S, Fuchs M, Freua F, Melo US, Mattas L, Ashtiani S, Suchowersky O, Groeschel S, Rouleau GA, Yosovich K, Michelson M, Leibovitz Z, Bilal M, Uctepe E, Yesilyurt A, Ozdogan O, Celik T, Krägeloh-Mann I, Riess O, Rosewich H, Umair M, Lev D, Zuchner S, Schweizer U, Lynch DS, Gan-Or Z, Haack TB. EEFSEC deficiency: A selenopathy with early-onset neurodegeneration. Am J Hum Genet. 2025 Jan 2;112(1):168-180. doi: 10.1016/j.ajhg.2024.12.001. PMID: 39753114; PMCID: PMC11739927. 

  23. Degoutin M, Angelini C, Bar C, El Khedoud WA, Barnerias C, Boulariah-Hadjou R, Estiar MA, Ewenczyk C, Gan-Or Z, Lacombe D, Lefeuvre C, Majethia P, Messaoud-Khelifi M, Narayanan DL, Rouleau GA, Suchowersky O, Shukla A, Guillaud-Bataille M, Stevanin G, Goizet C. From spastic paraplegia to infantile neurodegenerative disorder: Expanding the phenotypic spectrum associated with biallelic SPAST variants. Eur J Neurol. 2025 Jan;32(1):e70025. doi: 10.1111/ene.70025. PMID: 39731306; PMCID: PMC11680745.

  24. Villa-Lopez M, McPherson M, Maire G, …Suchowersky O.  First case of Cayman ataxia far north of the Caribbean: A 20-year-old Inuit male with homozygous deletion in ATCAY gene. Park Related Disord 2025 141:108101

  25. Schellenberg KL, Caspar-Bell G, Ellis C, Johnston W, King A, King M, Korngut L, Kushneriuk B, Lavoie AJ, McGonigle R, Newton J, O'Connell C, Shoesmith C, Suchowersky O, Warman-Chardon J, Wunder S, Pfeffer G. Best practice recommendations for the clinical care of spinal bulbar muscular atrophy. CMAJ. 2025 Sep 21;197(31):E987-E999. doi: 10.1503/cmaj.250180.PMID: 40983380 

  26.  Assaedi E, Ashtiani S, Estiar M, Gan-Or Z, McKenzie E, Shetty A, Rouleau G, Suchowersky O.  Hereditary spastic paraplegia in Alberta: lessons from a well-defined cohort including the Indigenous population.  Mov Disord Clin Pract. 2025 12:1346-1356 DOI:10.1002/mdc3.70115