Myotonic Dystrophy Foundation

The Muscular Dystrophy Association (MDA) recently awarded two research grants for work on myotonic dystrophy.

The first grant, given to Dr. Ju Chen and his research team at the University of California San Diego is for work on a protein Cypher which may play a role in myotonic dystrophy. “Since we’ve studied Cypher from the beginning, we’d really like to understand the function of the protein and to know the disease mechanism," Chen said from his California laboratory. To continue his efforts to unravel the role of this mysterious muscle protein in debilitating diseases, Chen has been awarded a new $330,000 research grant by the Muscular Dystrophy Association.

“Understanding abnormalities in Cypher is a vital step in identifying therapeutic targets for several of the rarest and most poorly understood diseases in MDA’s research program,” said Valerie Cwik, M.D., MDA executive vice president for research and medical director. “Moreover, as Dr. Chen’s group has shown that the Cypher protein is an integral component of all skeletal muscle, the knowledge gained from his investigation could very well extend to many of the other neuromuscular diseases MDA is working so hard to defeat.”

The second grant was awarded to Dr. Aymeric Ravel-Chapuis, Ph.D. in the amount of $179,850 for his work on myotonic dystrophy. Ravel-Chapuis hopes that by unraveling the myotonic dystrophy mystery, he also may help people affected by other, related, diseases including fragile X-associated tremor ataxia syndrome, Huntington's disease-like 2, and some forms of spinocerebellar ataxia. He said “it is believed that some basic mechanisms are shared in these diseases, so our work on myotonic dystrophy may also be relevant to them.’’

Ravel-Chapuis is one of 38 research leaders now receiving multiyear awards from MDA. His three-year project is part of the $14.1 million in new research funding approved during the Association’s July Board meeting. This is his first MDA grant.

For more information on these grants, visit: http://www.mda.org/research/sandiego-ucsd2-330k.html or http://www.mda.org/research/ottawa-uo-180k.html

This information was posted with permission from the MDA. For more information, please contact Jim Brown, Vice President, Public Relations for the Muscular Dystrophy Association jbrown@mdausa.org