MDA has awarded 38 new research grants totaling more than $14 million and covering more than a dozen neuromuscular diseases. 

MDA's Board of Directors met in Los Angeles July 16, where it reviewed and approved the new grants based on recommendations from the MDA Scientific and Medical Advisory Committees. Grants were scored and recommended for approval based on the capabilities of the applicant, the scientific merit of the project, and the proposal's relevance to developing treatments for the disease. The effective start date for all grants was July 1, 2010.

It's been more than a year since best-selling poet, peacemaker and MDA spokesman Mattie J.T. Stepanek died.

Although Mattie lost his battle with mitochondrial myopathy on June 22, 2004, just shy of his 14th birthday, in the midst of his third term as National Goodwill Ambassador, he still is an ambassador for MDA and one of its most prominent voices.

*Note: In the print edition of Quest, this article was titled "Rounding Up the Usual -- and Not So Usual -- Suspects."

The scene is familiar to everyone who watches crime dramas. The safe has been opened, and the hotel guests' jewelry and other valuables are missing. What happened, and when, and who's responsible?

He's a best-selling author ... he regularly swaps e-mails with Oprah Winfrey ... and President Jimmy Carter calls him "one of my best friends."

He's also a huge fan of songwriter "Weird Al" Yankovic, loves to play video games, and has an impressive rock collection.

Such is the amazing world of Matthew J.T. Stepanek, the MDA 2002 National Goodwill Ambassador.

Part 1 of this series(Quest, Vol. 6, No. 2) addressed cardiomyopathy, the degeneration of heart muscle that often occurs in many neuromuscular diseases.