NAF Ataxia Research Studies Currently Underway

The National Ataxia Foundation is pleased to announce that fifteen promising ataxia research studies were funded in late December 2007 for fiscal year 2008. The Foundation's Board of Directors is very excited about the quality of these research studies in finding more answers to stop ataxia. The Foundation extents its heartfelt thank you to those who contributed to the ataxia research drive, our corporate and foundation friends, and to those individuals and families who held fund raisers. It is through your gifts which makes it possible to support these important research efforts. The following are NAF funded ataxia research studies being conducted today:

• Role of rhu-EPO and HDAC inhibitors alone and/or in combination on the regulation of frataxin expression. New prospective for FRDA treatment, Sergio Cocozza, MD
• Frataxin folding, chaperone role and interactions with iron-sulfur biosynthesis proteins: contributions to understand Friedreich's ataxia, Cláudio M. Gomes, PhD
• Disrupted pre-mRNA splicing in Machado-Joseph disease, Michael D. Hebert, PhD
• Molecular and Cellular Physiology of Episodic Ataxia Type 1, EA1, James Maylie, PhD
• Dissecting transcriptional misregulation in SCA1 using Laser capture microscopy and transcriptional profiling, Puneet Opal, MD, PhD
• Biological tools to investigate Spinocerebellar Ataxia 27 (SCA27), David M. Ornitz, M.D.,Ph.D.
• RNAi as therapy for spinocerebellar ataxia type 3 (SCA3), Henry Paulson, MD, PhD
• Role of Bergmann glia in Purkinje cell development and pathology in SCA1, Parminder J. S. Vig, Ph.D.
• RNAi therapeutics for Friedreich's ataxia, Robert Wilson, MD, PhD
• Understanding the molecular basis of rCGG mediated neurodegeneration in Drosophila melanogaster, Qurashi, Abrar, PhD
• P130Cas in granule cell migration: understanding the mechanisms underlying cell migration in cerebellar development, Riccomagno, Martin M., PhD
• SCA 2 Pathogenesis: Altered splicing caused by gain of normal ataxin-2 function, Strauss, Karsten, PhD
• Elucidating the mechanism of ATX-2: the C.elegans ortholog of a protein implicated in human neurodegenerative disease, Wright, Jane, PhD
• Pathogenesis of impaired glucose tolerance and diabetes in Friedreich's ataxia: contribution of insulin resistance and pancreatic beta cell dysfunction, Miriam Cnop, MD, PhD
• The role of frataxin in heme-synthesis, Dr. Brigitte Sturm
• Use of a novel catalytic antioxidant, CTMIO, in a GAA repeat mouse model of FRDA Project Objectives, Nuri Gueven, PhD, Senior Research Officer