David Peterson, PhD, is an Associate Research Scientist at the Institute for Neural Computation, University of California San Diego (UCSD); Director of the Computational Neurology Center at UCSD; and a member of the Dystonia Coalition (DC). His research focuses on improving outcomes for patients with dystonia, a large group of movement disorders causing uncontrollable, sometimes painful, involuntary muscle contractions, resulting in repetitive shaking, turning, and twisting of affected body parts. Here, he shares his start in rare disease research, exciting discoveries, and future goals.