Meet two of our 2025 Pilot Grant Recipients, David Housman, PhD and Christopher Ng, Sc.D.! Drs. David Housman and Christopher Ng are committed to advancing therapeutic strategies for DM1 by targeting the underlying mechanism of CTG repeat instability. The project “A Targeted DNA Repair Enzyme Therapy for Myotonic Dystrophy” represents a focused effort to expand a promising DNA repair enzyme therapy, developed in the context of Huntington’s disease (HD), into the DM1 field. The MDF pilot grant is essential to enabling this expansion and to initiating a strategic collaboration with Dr. Eric Wang, whose laboratory has been at the forefront of DM1 biology, model development, and therapeutic delivery.

Dr. Housman has had a long-standing and impactful career in DM1 and other repeat expansion disorders (REDs), including seminal contributions to uncovering the genetic underpinnings of DM1 and HD. Dr. Ng is a dedicated early-career investigator who has been working under Dr. Housman’s mentorship to develop FAN1 as a disease-modifying therapeutic for repeat expansion disorders. While Dr. Ng’s primary research has centered on HD, this proposal marks a committed pivot into the DM1 space. He is deeply invested in both the scientific and translational aspects of this research, including therapeutic development and commercialization.

The Housman Lab has a longstanding dedication to the genetic discovery and mechanistic understanding of inherited diseases, including its early co-discovery of the DMPK gene implicated in DM1. The team is fully committed to advancing this project as a sustained line of investigation into DM1 biology and therapy. With MDF’s support, they aim to catalyze not only preclinical discovery but also longer-term therapeutic development that will ultimately improve the lives of those affected by DM1.

Click here to learn more about MDF's research funding opportunities and prior grant recipients.