About six months ago, scientists from all over the world converged on the 2018 Ataxia Investigators Meeting. Colleagues and students discussed the latest advancements in ataxia research. Researchers were able to connect with patients and families, letting them know what progress was being made.

Some of the discussion between trainees at this meeting highlighted how great it was to be able to speak with patients and let them know what was happening in the lab. It was unfortunate that this opportunity only happened every two years.

It was at this meeting where the idea for SCAsource was born: a website where scientific articles on SCAs and related ataxias would be translated into plain language that anyone would be able to understand.

Following in the footsteps of HDbuzz (Huntington’s Disease) and Alzforum (Alzheimer’s Disease), we hoped that SCAsource would allow ataxia research to be more readily accessible and understandable to patients and families.

The last few months have been a bit bumpy, but we are excited to officially launch the SCAsource website! Thank you to our over 30 volunteers for their interest, support, and the hard work they’ve put into this project. We are aiming to have new content for you every two weeks. As SCAsource continues to grow, we hope to expand to more frequent content and a wider variety of ataxias.

Please take a few minutes to look around the website. If you have any comments, drop us a line on our contact page. We are open to suggestions on articles to cover or words to add to our glossary. If we didn’t get something quite right or it could be better, please let us know! This is a new experience for many of our volunteers and we are learning as we go.

Most of all, we hope you find something of value here at SCAsource!