MD Research Leaders Gather In Ottawa

Leaders in muscular dystrophy research will gather in Ottawa this week to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the identification of the gene that underlies Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD), the most common childhood MD, and update each other on progress in the field.

Keynote speakers Louis Kunkel of Children’s Hospital Boston and Ronald Worton of Ottawa Health Research Institute had MDA funding in the 1980s when the gene, which carries instructions for the muscle protein dystrophin, was found. An absence of dystrophin leads to Duchenne MD, and a partial deficiency leads to Becker muscular dystrophy (BMD), which is less severe.

Almost all of the 34 conference speakers are or have recently been MDA research grantees, and all have made major contributions.

Presentations on muscle stem cells, gene therapy and stimulation of substitute proteins to compensate for those that are missing are among the expected highlights.

The scientists will discuss research developments in Duchenne, Becker, limb-girdle and myotonic muscular dystrophies, and in spinal muscular atrophy.

Margaret Wahl, MDA’s medical and science editor, will report from Ottawa. Watch this site for information as it becomes available.