MDA has awarded a research grant totaling $295,269 over three years to Grace Pavlath, professor in the department of pharmacology at Emory University in Atlanta. The new funds will help support Pavlath’s study of abnormal muscle regeneration in the muscular dystrophies, particularly Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD).

Dongsheng Duan, professor in the department of molecular microbiology & immunology at the University of Missouri in Columbia, has received an MDA grant totaling $527,670 over three years. The funds will help support Duan's continued research into gene therapy in Duchenne muscular dystrophy DMD).

DMD is caused by a mutation in the dystrophin gene, which leads to the absence, or near absence, of dystrophin protein.

MDA has awarded a research grant totaling $375,000 over three years to David Goldhamer, associate professor, director of the Center for Regenerative Biology, and associate director of the UConn Stem Cell Institute at the University of Connecticut in Storrs. The new funds will help support Goldhamer’s study of muscle stem cells and the repair of damaged muscle in Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD).

MDA has awarded a research grant totaling $369,165 over three years to Bradley Olwin, professor of molecular, cellular & developmental biology at the University of Colorado in Boulder. The new funds will help support Olwin’s study of muscle regeneration in injured and diseased skeletal muscle — particularly in the muscular dystrophies, including Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD).

Olwin is a longtime MDA grantee, having received funding from the Association almost continuously since the early 1980s.

MDA has awarded a research grant totaling $313,500 to Xander Wehrens, associate professor in the departments of molecular physiology & biophysics and medicine at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas. The new funds will help support Wehrens’ research into abnormal heart function in Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD).

Harold Bernstein, professor of pediatrics at the University of California, San Francisco, has been awarded an MDA research grant totaling $540,000 over three years. The award will help support Bernstein's study of human muscle development and potential cell-based therapies for treatment of degenerative muscle diseases such as Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD).

Andrew Brack, an assistant professor at the Center for Regenerative Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, was awarded an MDA research grant totaling $353,259 over three years. The funds will help support Brack's research into the function of adult muscle stem cells called "satellite cells" in Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) and possibly in other muscular dystrophies as well.

MDA has awarded a research development grant totaling $179,912 over three years to Jianming Liu in the department of cell and tissue biology at the University of California, San Francisco. The new funds will help support Liu’s study of the disease process in Duchenne (DMD) and  Becker (BMD) muscular dystrophies.

MDA has awarded a research grant totaling $210,618 over two years to David Kass, professor of cardiology, medicine and biomedical engineering at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. The new funds will help support Kass’ study of the disease process and potential therapeutic strategies in Duchenne (DMD), Becker (BMD) and other muscular dystrophies.

MDA has awarded a research grant totaling $309,336 over three years to Pier Lorenzo Puri, professor of pediatrics at the University of California, San Diego, and associate professor of muscle development and regeneration at the Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute, both in La Jolla, Calif. The funds will help support Puri's study of the molecular underpinnings of, and the identification of treatments for, Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD).