Researchers at the Psychology of Disability Lab at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor are exploring the social identity of people with disabilities through a short, anonymous, Web-based questionnaire.

The lab's Disability Identity Project is being headed by principal investigator Adena Rottenstein, a doctoral candidate in psychology.

The study closes the week of Aug. 22, 2011.

Below are brief reports and links to more information about neuromuscular disease research presented at the 63rd annual meeting of the American Academy of Neurology (AAN), held in Honolulu April 9-16, 2011.

Moving therapeutic strategies from the laboratory to clinical trials and ultimately to the market as treatments was the theme of the MDA National Scientific Conference held March 13-16, 2011, in Las Vegas.

Some 300 people attended the conference, the first in a planned series of such MDA-sponsored meetings that will emphasize new research and current medical care. The majority of presenters and many of the audience members were current or former MDA research grantees or physicians at MDA-supported clinics.

The Muscular Dystrophy Association has awarded 44 grants totaling $13.5 million to support research efforts aimed at advancing understanding of disease processes and uncovering new strategies for treatments and cures of muscular dystrophy and the more than 40 other diseases in the Association’s program.

The new grants were reviewed by MDA’s Scientific and Medical Advisory Committees, and approved by MDA’s Board of Directors at its December meeting.

Editor's note 2/7/11: A link to the Tivorsan Pharmaceuticals website has been added.

Duchenne and Becker muscular dystrophies

Researchers at the University of Rochester (N.Y.) Wellstone Muscular Dystrophy Cooperative Research Center have identified a compound that has the potential to be developed into a treatment for type 1 myotonic dystrophy (MMD1, or DM1).

The compound, dubbed CAG25, is an "antisense oligonucleotide," a type of construct that's been used to block disease-causing genetic instructions in laboratory experiments and human trials in other diseases.

Letters to Quest: Camp is so important ** Moms on Wheels ** All camps not the same ** No guarantees (life expectancy) ** FMLA and sibling caregivers ** Pay for family caregivers.

It seems as if everybody wants information about you these days. Try to get that rebate the salesman promised on your new computer, and the company wants to know how old you are, how much money you make and whether you went to college.

Phone surveys want to know what you think of your congressional representative, whether you’re planning to sell your house and what radio stations you listen to.