Thomas Rando, at Palo Alto Veterans Institute for Research and Stanford University in California, was awarded an MDA research grant totaling $300,000 over three years to develop a mouse model — a so-called “reporter mouse” — that will reflect and quantify degeneration of skeletal muscles. Importantly, scientists will be able to use the mouse to test the ability of cell and gene therapies to alter the progression of Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) and other muscular dystrophies.

Funding for this MDA research grant began Aug. 1, 2015.