HDSA’s Scientific Advisory Board will gather this week at our national offices in New York City to discuss this year’s applications for the Human Biology Project, our largest research initiative. The goal of this program, launched in 2013, is to foster innovative research in humans or human tissues, in collaboration with HDSA Centers of Excellence or other HD clinics around the US and the globe. Stay tuned for an announcement of this year’s award winners, coming in October.
HDSA Berman-Topper Fellow Blogs About Her Progress
HDSA’s Berman-Topper Fellowship program supports young scientists who have committed their careers to studying Huntington’s disease. 2017 Fellow Dr. Tamara Maiuri goes above and beyond to make her research progress known not only to HDSA, but to anyone who is interested in following along. She’s working on understanding why huntingtin protein and a DNA repair protein called PAR tend to stick together. Recent results have been confusing, but research is sometimes like that! Tam reports it all with honesty and accuracy in her latest blog post.
Huntington Study Group Launches HD Insights Podcast
The Huntington Study Group helps to facilitate clinical research trials for Huntington’s disease through their worldwide network of investigators, coordinators, and scientists. They provide guidance and funding for HD clinical researchers and work with companies to coordinate research trials. They also publish a print and online magazine called HD Insights. Many of these articles are written by and directed towards for doctors and researchers, but most can be understood by a wide audience. You can check out their latest (May 2019) and previous issues here. They also recently launched a podcast, which can be listened to via Apple or Google Play. The first episode is an interview with Dr. Dan Claassen, neurologist and director of the HDSA Center of Excellence at Vanderbilt University, and the second is an interview with Dr. Joseph Higgins, Vice President of Clinical Development, CNS at UniQURE. UniQURE will soon begin a small clinical trial to determine the safety of AMT-130, a viral gene therapy for HD that will require a brain surgery. This podcast doesn’t provide any additional news about that upcoming trial, but if you want to learn more about the real people behind the clinical research, it’s a good listen.
