The Ataxia Community Comes Together in Orlando April 9–11, 2026 for the Annual Ataxia Conference! LEARN MORE
Patients with ataxia share many common symptoms, including a loss of coordination. While these symptoms might be easy to see in patients, testing movement ability is not as straightforward in mouse models of ataxia. Because of this, researchers use something called the “rotarod performance test” to assess motor coordination and Read More…
Principal Investigator: Dr. Willeke van Roon-Mom Location: Leiden University Medical Centre, Leiden, The Netherlands Year Founded: 1995 What disease areas do you research? SCA1 SCA3 Huntington’s Disease Dutch – Cerebral Amyloid Angiopathy Alzheimer Disease What models and techniques do you use? Mouse Models hiPSC-derived stem cells models Post-mortem patient tissue Read More…
Principal Investigator: Dr. Alanna Watt Location: McGill University, Montreal, Canada Year Founded: 2011 What disease areas do you research? SCA6 ARSACS Aging Basic questions about how the cerebellum functions. What models and techniques do you use? Animal models of ataxia and aging Electrophysiology Imaging RNA sequencing Behavioural assays Research Focus Read More…
Written by Dr. Marija Cvetanovic Edited by Dr. Ronald Buijsen Researchers from the University of California show they can “edit” the Frataxin gene in human cells from Friedreich’s Ataxia and transplant them into mice. This lays the groundwork for this method to be tested for safety. Friedreich’s ataxia is a Read More…
Written by Ambika Tewari Edited by Brenda Toscano Márquez Trehalose, a natural autophagy inducer shows promise as a therapeutic candidate for MJD/SCA3 Every cell has an elaborate set of surveillance mechanisms to ensure optimal functioning. As proteins are synthesized, errors can occur leading to misfolded proteins. These abnormal proteins can Read More…
Written by Dr. Amy Smith-Dijak Edited by Logan Morrison Basic biology helps identify a new treatment for ataxia Drug design doesn’t always have to start with a blank slate. Sometimes understanding how existing drugs work can help researchers to design new ones, or even to recombine old drugs in new Read More…
You may have heard that nerve cells (or neurons) in the brain use electrical activity to communicate with one another. The proteins responsible for creating these electrical signals are called ion channels. How do neurons use these electrical signals to communicate with one another in a meaningful way? A good Read More…
Written by Frida Niss Edited by Dr. Siddharth Nath Can neurodegeneration in SCA7 in part be due to faulty calcium homeostasis in the cerebellum? Polyglutamine diseases are caused by an increase in the length of CAG repeats within a specific gene. The mutation for spinocerebellar ataxia type 7 (SCA7) was Read More…
Written by Kim M. Gruver Edited by David Bushart What’s cognition got to do with ataxia? Could the cerebellum mediate both cognitive and motor symptoms in the same disease? And how can scientists use mice to find out? Spinocerebellar ataxia type 1, or SCA1, is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that Read More…
Written by Dr. Michael Flower Edited by Dr. Rachel Harding Editor’s Note: This article was initially published by HDBuzz on March 13, 2020. They have graciously allowed us to build on their work and add a section on how this research may be relevant to ataxia. This additional writing was Read More…
