Steve Jobs said, “The only way to do great work is to love what you do.” And MDA’s new president and CEO, Donald S. Wood, PhD, surely loves what he does. “The mission of this organization has been a lifelong passion for me,” Dr. Wood says. After receiving his doctorate in Physiology from Washington State . . .
On Oct. 27, Scholar Rock announced positive results from an interim analysis of its phase 2 clinical trial evaluating SRK-015, a therapy for treating spinal muscular atrophy (SMA). After six months of treatment with SRK-015, patients with SMA types 2 and 3 demonstrated significant motor function improvements, as measured by the Hammersmith scale, with higher dose . . .
Researchers at the University of Rochester in New York seek people diagnosed with Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) who are interested in helping to develop disease-specific patient-reported outcome measures for future clinical trials. This survey will help to determine the most critical symptoms of children, young adults, and adults with DMD, and as a result, it . . .
Last year, Sharon Hesterlee, PhD, took the helm as executive vice president, chief research officer, at MDA. With her unique, decades-spanning career — which began, in fact, at MDA — in the pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and nonprofit sectors, her appointment is certain to advance not only MDA’s mission but also the research and development of genetic . . .
AavantiBio, a biotechnology company developing a gene-targeting therapy for Friedreich’s ataxia (FA), was awarded MDA Venture Philanthropy (MVP) funding totaling $1,076,232 to advance AavantiBio’s phase 2 clinical trial of a gene-replacement therapy for the disease. MVP is MDA’s drug development program, which is exclusively focused on funding the discovery and clinical application of treatments and . . .
At more than 150 of the leading healthcare institutions across the US, MDA Care Centers offer top clinical care to individuals living with muscular dystrophy, ALS, and other neuromuscular diseases. Providing access to this expert multidisciplinary care, however, is just one way that Care Centers serve the neuromuscular community. MDA Care Centers are conducting clinical . . .
Charles Thornton, MD, professor of Neurology at the University of Rochester, was awarded an MDA clinical research network grant (CRNG) totaling $1,118,673 over three years to continue to lead the development of the Myotonic Dystrophy Clinical Research Network, which comprises six medical centers specializing in research and clinical care of myotonic dystrophy (DM) types 1 . . .
Matthew Wood, PhD, professor of Neuroscience at the University of Oxford and director of both the Oxford Rare Disease Center and the MDUK Oxford Neuromuscular Center, was awarded an MDA research grant totaling $210,000 over two years to optimize the delivery of genetic therapies such as oligonucleotides to tissues for treating Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD). . . .
Even though the Martinez family lives in Burbank, Calif., within an hour’s drive to Los Angeles’ Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, their road to the hospital’s specialized clinics — to Dr. Robert Baloh and his work there — was a long one. Daniel and Gladis Martinez have two daughters: Genesis, 15, and Isabella, 14, born just 10 . . .
Martin Childers, PhD, DO, chief medical officer at Asklepios BioPharmaceutical Inc. in North Carolina, was awarded an MDA research grant totaling $192,500 over one year to perform pre-clinical studies using an adeno-associated virus (AAV) to deliver a gene therapy for limb-girdle muscular dystrophy type 2I (LGMD2I). Limb-girdle muscular dystrophies are a diverse group of disorders . . .
