Grants at a Glance — Summer 2011
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ALS — Cleveland
MDA has awarded a research grant totaling $429,983 over three years to Don Cleveland, departmental chair of cellular and molecular medicine; professor of medicine, neurosciences, and cellular and molecular medicine; and member of the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research in La Jolla, Calif. The funds will help support Cleveland’s research into the connection between mitochondria and ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or Lou Gehrig's disease).
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ALS — Grill
MDA has awarded a research grant totaling $202,508 over a period of three years to Raymond Grill, assistant professor in the department of integrative biology and pharmacology at the University of Texas Health Science Center, Houston. The funds will support testing in the SOD1 mouse model of an experimental combination drug treatment in ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or Lou Gehrig's disease).
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ALS — Jayaraman
MDA awarded $294,183 over three years to Vasanthi Jayaraman, an associate professor in the department of biochemistry and molecular biology at the University of Texas Health Science Center in Houston. The funds will help support Jayaraman’s study of the molecular mechanisms underlying motor neuron death in ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or Lou Gehrig's disease).
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ALS — Kriz
Jasna Kriz, associate professor in the department of psychiatry and neuroscience at Laval University, Quebec City, Canada, was awarded an MDA research grant totaling $445,086 over a period of three years to help refine and describe a new mouse model that will enable scientists to visualize different aspects of the disease process in ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or Lou Gehrig's disease).
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ALS — Lagier-Tourenne
Clotilde Lagier-Tourenne, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of California, San Diego, in La Jolla, was awarded an MDA development grant totaling $180,000 over a period of three years to study the roles of two proteins, TDP43 and FUS, in ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or Lou Gehrig's disease).
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ALS — Lee
Youngjin Lee, postdoctoral associate in the department of neurology at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore was awarded an MDA development grant totaling $179,997 over three years. The funds will support Lee's study of the role of a protein called MCT-1 in ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or Lou Gehrig's disease).
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ALS — Xin
MDA has awarded a development grant totaling $180,000 over a period of three years to Junping Xin, research associate at the Neuroscience Institute, Loyola University Medical Center in Chicago, and Edward Hines Jr. Veterans Administration Hospital in Hines, Ill. The funds will help support Xin’s research into the possible effects of immune system dysfunction in ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or Lou Gehrig's disease).
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CCD/MH — Hamilton
MDA has awarded a research grant totaling $375,000 over a period of three years to Susan Hamilton, L.F. McCollum Chair in Molecular Physiology, department of molecular physiology and biophysics at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston. The funds will help support Hamilton’s study of the molecular mechanisms underlying a wide spectrum of muscle disorders including central core disease (CCD) and malignant hyperthermia (MH).
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CMD — Nowotschin
Sonja Nowotschin, a postdoctoral research fellow in the developmental biology department at the Sloan-Kettering Institute in New York, has been awarded an MDA development grant totaling $163,638 over three years. (Development grants are MDA's mechanism for furthering the career development of promising young researchers.)
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CMD/LGMD — Brown
Susan Brown, a reader (equivalent to associate professor) in translational medicine at the Royal Veterinary College in London, has been awarded an MDA grant totaling $356,838 over three years. The grant will help support Brown's research on muscular dystrophies related to mutations in the gene for fukutin-related protein (FKRP).
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DMD — Fraidenraich
Diego Fraidenraich, an assistant professor in the department of cell biology & molecular medicine at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, was awarded an MDA grant totaling $375,000 over three years. The funds will support his study of the relationship between muscle and fat formation in a mouse model of Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD).
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DMD — Noordermeer
MDA has awarded a research grant totaling $278,570 over three years to Jasprina Noordermeer, a professor in the department of molecular cell biology at Leiden University Medical Center in the Netherlands. The grant will support Noordermeer's studies of the role of dystrophin in the brain. The dystrophin protein is absent or deficient in boys with Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD).
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DMD — Zacharin
Margaret Zacharin, an associate professor in the department of endocrinology and diabetes at Royal Children's Hospital in Parkville, Victoria, Australia, has been awarded an MDA research grant totaling $268,021 over two years. The award will help support a clinical trial of the drug zoledronic acid in children and adolescents with Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD).
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DMD/BMD — Childers
Martin Childers, a professor at the Institute for Regenerative Medicine in Winston-Salem, N.C., has been awarded an MDA grant totaling $480,000 over three years. The Institute is part of Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center.
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DMD/BMD — Currie
Peter Currie, a professor of medicine at Monash University in Clayton, Victoria, Australia, was awarded an MDA research grant totaling $375,000 over three years. The funds will help support Currie's research, which involves screening for possible therapeutic molecules using the zebrafish model of Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD).
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DMD/BMD — Gussoni
MDA has awarded a grant totaling $384,066 over three years to Emanuela Gussoni, an assistant professor in the division of genetics and program in genomics at Children's Hospital Boston and Harvard University. The grant will support Gussoni's studies to improve the efficacy of stem cell transplantation as a strategy to treat Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD), Becker muscular dystrophy (BMD) and possibly other forms of muscular dystrophy.
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DMD/BMD — Khurana
MDA has awarded a research grant totaling $379,500 over three years to Tejvir Khurana, a professor of physiology at the University of Pennsylvania. The grant will support Khurana's research to increase the production of utrophin, a protein that may improve muscle strength and function in Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) and Becker muscular dystrophy (BMD).
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DMD/BMD — Martin
Paul Martin, a professor of pediatrics and of physiology and cell biology at Ohio State University College of Medicine, has been awarded an MDA grant totaling $396,000 over three years. The award will help support Martin's study of the possible therapeutic effects of an enzyme called GALGT2 in Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD).
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DMD/BMD — Partridge
MDA has awarded a research grant totaling $474,278 over three years to Terence Partridge, a professor of pediatrics at George Washington University Medical School and Children's National Medical Center in Washington, D.C. The award will help support Partridge's work to improve the usefulness of the standard mouse model of Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD), the so-called "mdx" mouse.
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DMD/BMD — Rando
MDA has awarded a research grant totaling $602,087 over three years to Thomas Rando, a professor in the department of neurology and neurological sciences at Stanford (Calif.) University School of Medicine. The grant will help support Rando's studies to understand how scar-tissue formation (fibrosis) occurs in muscular dystrophies, especially Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) and Becker muscular dystrophy (BMD). DMD is caused by an absence of the dystrophin protein, and BMD is caused by dystrophin protein that's only partially functional.
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DMD/BMD — Rudnicki
MDA has awarded a grant totaling $375,000 over three years to Michael Rudnicki, director of the Regenerative Medicine Program at Ottawa Hospital Research Institute and a professor in the department of medicine at the University of Ottawa, Canada. This funding will support Rudnicki's continuing studies on the function of muscle satellite cells in mice with a disease resembling human Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD).
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DMD/BMD — Sacco
MDA has awarded a research grant totaling $447,092 over three years to Alessandra Sacco, an assistant professor in the Muscle Development and Regeneration Program at Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute in La Jolla, Calif. The grant will help support Sacco's research on early-stage transplantation of muscle stem cells to treat a mouse model of Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD).
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DMD/BMD — Spencer
Melissa Spencer, professor of neurology and co-director of the Center for Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy at the University of California, Los Angeles, has been awarded an MDA grant totaling $501,493 over three years. The funds will help support Spencer's continuing studies of the role of a protein called osteopontin and of inflammatory processes in a mouse model of Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD).
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FA — Lynch
MDA has awarded a research grant totaling $202,222 over two years to David Lynch, professor of neurology at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. The funds will help support Lynch's study of the relationship between diabetes and Friedreich's ataxia (FA).
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FA — Richardson
MDA has awarded a research grant totaling $625,959 over a period of three years to Des Richardson, professor and senior principal research fellow at the University of Sydney (Australia) School of Medical Sciences. The funds will help support Richardson's continued research into iron metabolism in Friedreich's ataxia (FA).
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FSHD — Kyba
MDA awarded a research grant totaling $375,000 over three years to Michael Kyba, assistant professor in the Lillehei Heart Institute and department of pediatrics at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis. The funds will help support Kyba's efforts to identify and test experimental therapies in facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy (FSH, or FSHD).
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FSHD — Rahimov
MDA has awarded a development grant totaling $180,000 over a period of three years to Fedik Rahimov, a postdoctoral research fellow at the program in genomics at Harvard Medical School and Children's Hospital Boston. The funds will help further elucidate the molecular mechanisms underlying facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy (FSH, or FSHD).
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FSHD — Wagner
MDA awarded a research grant totaling $284,778 over a period of three years to Eric Wagner, an assistant professor in the department of biochemistry and molecular biology at the University of Texas Health Science Center in Houston. The funds will help support Wagner’s investigations into the role of the DUX4 gene in facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy (FSH, or FSHD).
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LGMD/DD — Levy
Jennifer Levy, a postdoctoral research fellow in the department of molecular physiology & biophysics at the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine, has been awarded an MDA development grant totaling $180,000 over three years. (This type of grant reflects MDA's commitment to the career development of promising young researchers.) The funds will support Levy's research on repair of the muscle-fiber membrane.
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LGMD/IBM — Goldberg
Alfred Goldberg, professor or cell biology at Harvard Medical School in Boston, has received an MDA research grant totaling $410,777 over three years to continue research into the mechanisms underlying muscle atrophy, with particular relevance for limb-girdle muscular dystrophy (LGMD) and possibly inclusion-body myositis (IBM).
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MD — Wagner
MDA has awarded a research grant totaling $362,760 over three years to Kathryn Wagner, an associate professor of neurology and neuroscience at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and director of the Center for Genetic Muscle Disorders at the Kennedy Krieger Institute, both in Baltimore.
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Mito. Myopathy - Morales
MDA awarded a grant totaling $363,672 to Carlos Moraes, professor of neurology at the University of Miami School of Medicine, to study the effects generated by an increase in functional mitochondria (the "energy factories" in cells) in mitochondrial myopathy.
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Mito. Myopathy — Owusu-Ansah
MDA has awarded a development grant totaling $180,000 over three years to Edward Owusu-Ansah, a postdoctoral fellow in the department of genetics at Harvard Medical School in Boston. The funds will help support Owusu-Ansah's research into the molecular mechanisms underlying mitochondrial myopathies.
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Mito. Myopathy — Puigserver
MDA has awarded a research grant totaling $313,551 over three years to Pere Puigserver, associate professor in the department of cancer biology at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, and department of cell biology at Harvard Medical School in Boston. The funds will help support Puigserver’s research into the study of two newly identified genes that may increase muscle performance in mitochondrial myopathies.
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Muscle Physiology — Harris
Samantha Harris, an associate professor in the department of neurobiology, physiology and behavior at the University of California, Davis, has been awarded an MDA grant totaling $244,024 over two years. The funding will help Harris in her quest to determine the properties of a skeletal-muscle protein called myosin binding protein C.
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Muscle Physiology — Nowak
MDA awarded a research grant totaling $329,091 over two years to Kristen Nowak, an associate professor at the University of Western Australia in Perth, and the Western Australian Institute for Medical Research. The funds will support Nowak's study of diseases caused by defects in the skeletal muscle actin gene, which include "essentially any genetic neuromuscular disease that tends to be severe in some patients and mild in others."
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Myopathies — Beggs
Alan Beggs, a professor of pediatrics at Harvard Medical School and director of the Manton Center for Orphan Disease Research at Children's Hospital Boston, has been awarded an MDA grant totaling $396,990 over three years. The funds will help support Beggs' research on the molecular genetics of congenital myopathies.
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Periodic Paralysis — Cannon
MDA has awarded a research grant totaling $404,274 over three years to Stephen Cannon, professor of neurology and associate dean for undergraduate medical education at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas. The funds will help support Cannon’s research into attacks of paralysis in people with periodic paralysis (PP).
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SBMA — Pennuto
MDA has awarded a research grant totaling $330,000 over three years to Maria Pennuto at the Italian Institute of Technology in Genova, Italy. The funds will help support Pennuto's continued studies of the molecular mechanisms underlying spinal-bulbar muscular atrophy (SBMA).
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SMA — Baumbach
MDA has awarded a research grant totaling $387,228 over three years to Lisa Baumbach, associate professor in the departments of neurology, pediatrics and biochemistry at the Miller School of Medicine at the University of Miami. The funds will help Baumbach continue to search for disease-causing genes responsible for infantile (either X-linked or type 1) spinal muscular atrophy (SMA).
In July 2011, the MDA Board of Directors approved funding for 40 research projects, targeting nearly two dozen neuromuscular diseases. These projects are in addition to some 300 grants currently funded by MDA.
For an overview of grants awarded by MDA in July 2011, see:
For a list of some 300 grants currently being funded by MDA, view this PDF.
Grants at a Glance
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