Linda Baum, professor and vice chair of pathology and laboratory medicine at the Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles, was awarded an MDA research grant totaling $405,000 over a period of three years to study molecules on the muscle surface that regulate important aspects of cellular communication and survival.

All cells, including muscle cells, are coated with an elaborate set of molecules called glycoproteins. These perform multiple critical functions, including: attaching cells to one another, relaying messages between cells, and ultimately, helping the cell survive. While animal models replicate important aspects of muscle diseases such as Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) and Becker muscular dystrophy (BMD), the glycoproteins on animal cells differ from those of human cells. These differences may mean that mouse models of DMD do not completely represent the disease that affects people, Baum says.

The precise functions of many of the different glycoproteins on human muscle cells are unknown. Baum’s research will include characterizing the entire set of human muscle glycoproteins, determining the function of a subset of them, and screening for compounds that improve muscle function through their effect on these glycoproteins.

Because she is interested in human-specific glycoproteins, Baum will be studying human cells derived from skin biopsies of boys with DMD and their parents. She will “reprogram” these cells in the lab to become muscle cells, which can then be used for drug screening.

“By using these human muscle cells to screen drug libraries to identify compounds that improve cell function, our aim is to rapidly target therapeutic agents that will be efficacious in patients with Duchenne and Becker muscular dystrophies,” Baum says.

Her results also may be applicable for individuals who have forms of congenital muscular dystrophy, such as Walker-Warburg syndrome, that result from defects in cellular glycosylation (the process of creating glycoproteins).

Funding for this MDA grant began Feb. 1, 2013.