October 2006 Three $50,000 grants awarded. Please download our
newsletter for more details.
July 2003 A $6,500 grant has been awarded
to Dr. Mark Pook at the Imperial College of London to help him reestablish a
colony of transgenic MJD mice which were reduced to minimal levels.
February 2003 A $50,000 grant has been awarded to Dr. Henry
Paulson to fund
RNAi Suppression in Machado-Joseph Disease Mouse Model
research.
In this project Dr. Paulson and his colleagues will attempt
to suppress expression of the mutant disease gene (a potentially powerful
therapeutic strategy for MJD/SCA3). They propose to exploit the power of RNA
interference (RNAi) to suppress the MJD1 disease gene in a mouse model of this
disease.
The studies build on exciting, recent in vitro results in Paulson’s lab in
which the mutant disease allele has been silenced in an allele-specific manner.
Dr. Beverly Davidson, an internationally recognized expert in CNS gene therapy
and RNAi technology will also collaborate with Dr. Paulson. This research should
help determine whether RNAi represents a viable therapeutic approach for MJD/SCA3 and perhaps related disorders.
November 2000 Ataxia MJD Research Project awarded a $119,034 grant to
Dr. Henry Paulson of the University of Iowa for research to find a
treatment using FDA approved drugs and other potentially therapeutic
compounds.
October 1999 Ataxia MJD Research Project awarded a $50,000 grant to
Dr. Veronica Colomer at Johns Hopkins University to develop an MJD mouse
model (in progress 11/00).
October 1999 Ataxia MJD Research Project awarded a $50,000 grant to Dr.
Henry Paulson of the University of Iowa to study cellular proteins and
the suppression of toxicity (in progress 11/00).
