Synuclein alpha (SNCA) is a mysterious protein. It’s present in healthy cells but we don’t know what it does there. It is notorious for its involvement in age-related neurodegenerative diseases. Twenty-seven years ago, researchers first associated SNCA with Parkinson’s disease. People with this disease lose neurons that communicate with each other using dopamine as a neurotransmitter in a part of their brains. These dopaminergic neurons have been found to contain aggregated masses of proteins called Lewy bodies. Most of these proteins are SNCA. Since then, researchers have reported SNCA in similar aggregates in the brains of people with other neurodegenerative diseases as well. But its presence is most prominent in brains with Parkinson’s. SNCA is abundant in neurons, especially in dopaminergic neurons. It is found near the nuclei of these cells and at the junctions between two neurons. It’s capable of misfolding as well as forming filamentous structures. So unlike most other proteins, which take up predictable three-dimensional structures, SNCA can fold in multiple ways. Misfolded proteins don’t function correctly. But beyond these observations, researchers …