News

MDA and FARA Form Research Collaboration for Friedreich’s Ataxia Treatments

The Muscular Dystrophy Association (MDA), together with the Friedreich’s Ataxia Research Alliance (FARA), have announced a new strategic partnership geared towards discovering better ways to address Friedreich’s Ataxia (FA) through advancing research, therapeutic development and clinical care. This alliance further strengthens the former’s dedication to forming partnerships both with for- and not-for-profit…

shRNA Molecules Reverse Friedreich’s Ataxia in Cells

A screen of molecules known as short-hairpin-loop-RNA (shRNA) revealed that certain features of Friedreich’s ataxia can be relieved through two specific shRNA sequences. In the laboratory of Dr. Robert B. Wilson at University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, researchers conducted a study that exposed cells isolated from Friedreich’s ataxia patients…

Muscular Dystrophy Association to Fund 250 Research Projects with Grants Worth $10 Million

The Muscular Dystrophy Association, the world’s leading nonprofit health agency dedicated to save and improve the lives of people with muscle disease amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and other neuromuscular diseases, recently announced it awarded some of the world’s most promising and esteemed scientists research grants amounting to $10 million to fund…

Retrotope Opens Patient Enrolment in Florida to Test Friedreich’s Ataxia Drug

Retrope, Inc., a privately held clinical-stage pharmaceutical company leading the advance of a revolutionary new unifying theory of aging and degeneration, has just opened patient enrolment for a 28-day, first-in-human, randomized, double-blind, controlled, ascending dose study of oral drug RT001. The study aims to determine the drug’s safety, tolerability and pharmacokinetic profile,…

September 25 Designated International Ataxia Awareness Day (IAAD)

The Minneapolis, Minnesota based National Ataxia Foundation and Ataxia organizations around the world have dedicated September 25, 2015 as the 16th annual International Ataxia Awareness Day (IAAD) help raise awareness about ataxia. Most people have likely never heard of ataxia, which refers to a group of rare and often fatal…

Novel Gene Therapy for Friedreich’s Ataxia by AAVLife Granted US Patent

Gene-therapy specialist company, AAVLife, recently acquired a patent from the United States Patent and Trademark Office for an experimental treatment of cardiomyopathy caused by the genetic disorder, Friedreich’s ataxia, which affects the nervous system and causes movement problems. People with this condition develop impaired muscle coordination (ataxia) that worsens over time and commonly…