Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD)

MDA has awarded a research grant totaling $313,500 to Xander Wehrens, associate professor in the departments of molecular physiology & biophysics and medicine at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas. The new funds will help support Wehrens’ research into abnormal heart function in Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD).

Harold Bernstein, professor of pediatrics at the University of California, San Francisco, has been awarded an MDA research grant totaling $540,000 over three years. The award will help support Bernstein's study of human muscle development and potential cell-based therapies for treatment of degenerative muscle diseases such as Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD).

Andrew Brack, an assistant professor at the Center for Regenerative Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, was awarded an MDA research grant totaling $353,259 over three years. The funds will help support Brack's research into the function of adult muscle stem cells called "satellite cells" in Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) and possibly in other muscular dystrophies as well.

MDA has awarded a research development grant totaling $179,912 over three years to Jianming Liu in the department of cell and tissue biology at the University of California, San Francisco. The new funds will help support Liu’s study of the disease process in Duchenne (DMD) and  Becker (BMD) muscular dystrophies.

MDA has awarded a research grant totaling $210,618 over two years to David Kass, professor of cardiology, medicine and biomedical engineering at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. The new funds will help support Kass’ study of the disease process and potential therapeutic strategies in Duchenne (DMD), Becker (BMD) and other muscular dystrophies.

MDA has awarded a research grant totaling $309,336 over three years to Pier Lorenzo Puri, professor of pediatrics at the University of California, San Diego, and associate professor of muscle development and regeneration at the Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute, both in La Jolla, Calif. The funds will help support Puri's study of the molecular underpinnings of, and the identification of treatments for, Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD).

MDA has awarded a research development grant totaling $180,000 over three years to Hao Shi, associate research scientist at Yale University in New Haven, Conn. The new funds will help support Shi’s study of muscle repair and regeneration in Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD).

MDA has awarded a research grant totaling $375,000 over three years to Young-Jin Son, associate professor of developmental neurobiology at Temple University in Philadelphia. The new funds will help support Son’s study of nerve and muscle interaction in muscle diseases such as Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD).

MDA has awarded a research grant totaling $220,000 over two years to Jen-Chywan Wang, assistant professor at the University of California, Berkeley. The new funds will help support Wang’s study of the effects of chronic glucocorticoid (steroid) treatment in Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD).

MDA awarded a grant totaling $367,386 over three years to Masahiko Hoshijima, professor of medicine at the University of California, San Diego in La Jolla, Calif. The funds will help support Hoshijima's research into connections between cardiac and respiratory failure in muscle diseases such as Duchenne (DMD), Becker (BMD) and other muscular dystrophies (MDs).