This startup's map will accelerate our hunt for a Parkinson's cure

Katharina Volz is on a mission to solve one of medicine's most intractable problems: a cure for Parkinson's disease. But, unlike the scores of researchers before her who have tried – and failed – to find a treatment for the complex neurodegenerative disorder, Volz is taking a new approach: she's making a map. "Part of the problem is that Parkinson's is really poorly understood, and it's a really complex disease so it's difficult to get a full picture of what's actually happening," says Volz, founder and CEO of medical startup OccamzRazor. She hopes that by using artificial intelligence to map everything we know about Parkinson's, her startup will be able to fill the gaps in our knowledge and home in on potential cures. In 2015, Volz had just finished her PhD in stem cell biology at Stanford when she received a phone call with the news that a close relative had been diagnosed with the disease.