New York, NY (May 19, 2025) — The Huntington’s Disease Society of America (HDSA) is pleased to announce the recipients of the 2025 Donald A. King Summer Research Fellowships, a unique grant program to train the next-generation of scientists with research expertise in Huntington’s disease (HD). The three awardees are undergraduate students who will spend their summer working in the labs of established HD scientists.
The 2025 Donald A. King Summer Research Fellows are:
- Jennifer Booth (University of Pittsburg) will use stem cells derived from patients and grow them into brain cells (neurons) in Dr. Diane Carlisle’s lab, to test if a potential drug can prevent inflammation in these cells.
- Teague Svendsen (Ohio State University), working with Dr. Richard Fishel, will study unusual shapes that DNA can form in the gene that causes Huntington’s disease. These shapes appear when a section of the DNA is repeated too many times, and the goal is to understand how they might make the disease worse over time.
- Nahom Zerai (Stanford University) is using yeast in the Judith Frydman lab to figure out how the protein responsible for Huntington’s Disease harms the cell’s power centers, called mitochondria, with the goal of finding potential treatments for the disease.
The Donald A. King Fellowships serve two important purposes. First, to attract bright young scientists to Huntington’s disease research, and second, to facilitate meaningful HD research that clarifies the biological mechanisms underlying HD pathology. Huntington’s disease (HD) is a rare, hereditary neurodegenerative disorder currently affecting approximately 41,000 Americans symptomatically, with another 200,000 estimated to be at-risk.
Applicants are evaluated by the quality of their personal academic achievements, mentoring plan, experimental design, and the feasibility of achieving their scientific goals in the short summer timeframe. This year, applications were reviewed by a panel of past and present HDSA Berman-Topper Family HD Career Development Fellows, a distinguished cohort of up-and-coming HD scientists who have received early career support from HDSA and the Berman and Topper families.
“The Donald A. King Fellowship is all about bringing bright young minds into HD research,” said Dr. Tamara Maiuri, Associate Director of Research and Patient Engagement at HDSA. “This year’s fellows are bringing creativity and passion to big research questions, from testing new drug strategies to exploring how HD affects cells and DNA. We’re excited to see where their work leads.”
HDSA established the Donald A. King Summer Research Fellowship program in 2005 in honor of Donald A. King who passed away suddenly in 2004. Don was a tireless advocate for HD families and served as HDSA’s Chairman of the Board from 1999 to 2003. Click here to learn more about HDSA’s Donald A. King Summer Research Fellowship program.
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Huntington’s disease is a fatal genetic disorder that causes the progressive breakdown of nerve cells in the brain. It deteriorates a person’s physical and mental abilities during their prime working years and has no cure. Every child of a parent with HD has a 50/50 chance of carrying the faulty gene. Today, there are approximately 41,000 symptomatic Americans and more than 200,000 at-risk of inheriting the disease.
The symptoms of HD are described as having ALS, Parkinson’s & Alzheimer’s – simultaneously.
The Huntington’s Disease Society of America is the premier nonprofit organization dedicated to improving the lives of everyone affected by HD. From community services and education to advocacy and research, HDSA is the world’s leader in providing help for today and hope for tomorrow for people with HD and their families.
To learn more about Huntington’s disease and the work of the Huntington’s Disease Society of America, visit www.hdsa.org or call (800)345-HDSA.
