Gene therapy, one of the most promising approaches now being tested on a range of rare and single-gene diseases, relies on using a modified virus to deliver a functioning copy of a gene into the cells of patients. But the viruses that work best for delivering genes to the brain, called adeno-associated viruses (AAVs), are … Read More
Email from Volunteer Chairman and Founder, Brad Margus: As you know, to develop an urgently needed treatment for A-T, we’ve been eager to use a gene therapy approach called “antisense oligonucleotide” or “ASO” therapy to produce a functional ATM protein in children who have A-T. While (with your help!) we’ve been steadily overcoming the financial … Read More
The A-T Children’s Project has begun funding a highly respected scientist’s lab to make cerebellar Purkinje cells from A-T patients. Ever since Shinya Yamanaka and John Gurdon shared the Nobel Prize in 2012 for converting mature blood and skin cells into stem cells, neuroscientists have been trying to take the next step: converting those stem … Read More
In collaboration with Valerie Natale, PhD of the Forgotten Diseases Research Foundation, the A-T Clinical Center at Johns Hopkins, funded by the A-T Children’s Project, is analyzing growth data for patients with A-T who have been followed over time to develop growth curves for A-T. The collaborators will then examine the effects of disease severity, … Read More
With support from the A-T Children’s Project, the lab of Sharon McGrath-Morrow, MD, a pediatric pulmonologist for the A-T Clinical Center, is sequencing RNA from A-T patient blood cells in hopes of identifying markers that will correlate with either immune problems or cancer and predict the disease’s course. If found and validated, such biomarkers could … Read More
I’m pleased to report that we have already amassed health and genomic data on 265 children and young adults with A-T through our on-line Global A-T Family Data Platform. Contributing families span 25 countries, facilitated by the portal’s functionality in 10 languages. Now, research scientists have begun plunging into these de-identified data sets, seeking discoveries … Read More
What an incredible response we had to the Bill and Lydia Addy “Double Match” campaign! We are pleased to report that, with your help, we quickly received donations to cover the entire $125,000 that Bill and Lydia Addy had offered to match 2-to-1 on donations received by May 9th. As a result, combined with their … Read More
The A-T Children’s Project has recently awarded funding to Rob Dineen, PhD from the University of Nottingham in the UK to assemble existing brain imaging data and examine how the cerebellum changes in A-T. Results from the review may bring more clarity about where and when the most critical problems occur in the A-T brain, … Read More
Email from Volunteer Chairman and Founder, Brad Margus: We’ve been overwhelmed by the generosity with which so many of you have reached out to support our efforts to treat, for the first time in history, a child with ataxia-telangiectasia (A-T) using antisense oligonucleotide gene therapy. This approach could slow or completely stop the disease in … Read More
We know what you’re thinking …. You can hardly wait to sign up for your next A-T CureTeam marathon weekend! Well, you’re in luck. The marathon weekend registrations are up and running, just waiting for you to join in on the fun! Join A-T families and friends and raise funds this year for the first … Read More
