First MDA Mattie Stepanek Fellowship Award Goes to Columbia Researcher
TUCSON, Ariz., Dec. 21, 2005 – Stefanie Zanssen, a physician-scientist
in the Department of Neurology at Columbia University in New York, is
the first recipient of the new Mattie Stepanek Postdoctoral Research
Fellowship Award from the Muscular Dystrophy Association.
The award gives Zanssen $60,000 a year for 2006 and 2007, to support
her research and training in the biology of mitochondria, miniature
organs that produce cellular energy throughout the body.
The Mattie Stepanek fellowship program began last year, after the death
of former MDA Goodwill Ambassador Mattie
Stepanek, who died on June 22, 2004, at the age of 13, of a mitochondrial
muscle disease.
Mattie was a world-renowned author of five best-selling poetry books
and was known for his frequent television appearances, including memorable
visits to the Oprah Winfrey show, where he talked about his poetry,
his disease and his desire for world peace.
“MDA is proud to award this fellowship in the spirit of one of
Mattie’s greatest dreams: to find cures for neuromuscular diseases,”
said MDA President & CEO Robert Ross.
Zanssen, who has doctorates in biochemistry and medicine from the Technical
University of Aachen in Germany, is studying the genetic control of
mitochondrial proliferation.
Specifically, Zanssen studies the development of ‘ragged red’
muscle fibers, which contain huge numbers of abnormal mitochondria and
are associated with muscle weakness. Understanding what triggers the
proliferation of these abnormal mitochondria could lead to strategies
to halt, or even reverse, the progress of some mitochondrial diseases.
MDA is a voluntary health agency working to defeat more than 40 neuromuscular
diseases through programs of worldwide research, comprehensive services,
and far-reaching professional and public health education.
For more information, go to www.mda.org.
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