Epic Costumes for Extraordinary Kids: Non-Profit Helps Kids in Wheelchairs Live Unlimited

Halloween is a night when kids can be whatever they want to be. They can dress as ghosts, cowboys, astronauts, monsters — the sky’s the limit. That’s exactly what Ryan Wiemer tells the kids he works with. The sky’s the limit. His non-profit, called Magic Wheelchair, helps kids live unlimited by designing and building special costumes. But . . .

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Experimental Mitochondrial Myopathy Treatment Shows Encouraging Results in Phase 2 Trial

Stealth Bio Therapeutics has reported encouraging results from a phase 2 clinical trial to evaluate elamipretide for the treatment of muscle weakness caused by mitochondrial disease. Elamipretide is an experimental drug designed to modify disease by helping to restore normal energy production in mitochondria and decrease oxidative stress. In the completed MMPOWER trial, investigators treated . . .

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BioMarin Discontinues Development of Pompe Drug  

  BioMarin Pharmaceutical has announced that it is discontinuing development of BMN 701, an enzyme replacement therapy (ERT) for the treatment of Pompe disease (acid maltase deficiency, or AMD). In Pompe, a deficiency of an enzyme called acid alpha-glucosidase helps break down sugar stored in cells (glycogen). Without this enzyme, glycogen accumulates in cells and . . .

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ALS Study Results Will Help Guide Clinical Trial Design

Results from a natural history study for familial (inherited) ALS caused by a mutation in the SOD1 gene have confirmed that a variation of the mutation called SOD1 A4V is associated with a more aggressive disease course when compared to non A4V SOD1 ALS. A variety of mutations in the gene for the SOD1 protein account . . .

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Mitsubishi Tanabe Seeks Approval in U.S. for Edaravone to Treat ALS

Osaka-based Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma reported on June 20 that it has submitted a New Drug Application (NDA) to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, seeking marketing approval of its drug edaravone to treat people with ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis). The Japanese pharmaceutical company’s NDA submission marks one of its first steps in establishing a presence in . . .

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Five Questions with FSHD Researcher Peter Jones

Peter Jones, associate professor in cell and developmental biology and neurology at University of Massachusetts Medical School in Worcester, was awarded an MDA research grant totaling $300,000 over a period of three years to develop a research mouse model for facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy (FSHD). Please describe your current research. Facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy (FSHD) is one . . .

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Laughter is the Best Medicine

Earlier this Spring, I had the honor of taking part in the 3rd annual Strength, Science and Stories of Inspiration event at the Harvard Science Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts. As a patient with dysferlinopathy (a form of muscular dystrophy), I was heartened to see every seat in the 500-person auditorium filled to support the mission of finding . . .

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