Huntington’s Disease Society of America Announces 2014 HD Human Biology Project GRANT RECIPIENTS

New York, NY, October 20, 2014 -- The Huntington’s Disease Society of America (HDSA) is pleased to announce that eight research grants have been awarded under the Society’s largest research initiative, the HDSA Huntington’s Disease Human Biology Project.  Totaling $795,000, these grants emphasize the importance of bringing basic and clinical researchers together to facilitate Huntington’s disease (HD) science beyond animal models and into the human condition with the participation of HD patients.

“With this year’s awards, HDSA not only continued, but significantly expanded our financial commitment to foster innovative patient-focused research to help the HD research community better understand the biology of Huntington’s disease as it occurs in people”, said George Yohrling, PhD, Director of Medical and Scientific Affairs at HDSA.  “The broad impact these HDSA supported studies can have on aspects of HD drug discovery and clinical development is enormous.”

HDSA received applications from researchers from twelve different countries.  Ultimately, grants were awarded to eight research fellows, from seven different institutions, in four countries (USA, Canada, The Netherlands and Germany).  The winning projects include development of a human stem cell neuromuscular model, sleep assessment in HD patients, biomarker development, improved brain imaging data to enable better and faster clinical trials and unbiased “big data” approaches to better understand disease pathology and identify potential drug targets for HD. 

The winners and titles of the 2014 HDSA HD Human Biology Project Grants are:

• Dr. Barbara Calamini, Research Scientist, Duke University: Human Stem Cell-Derived Neuromuscular Co-culture Platform for Assessing Peripheral Manifestation of Huntington’s Disease, Amy Bradshaw Humphrey Memorial Award Winner
• Dr. Dawn Loh, Research Associate, UCLA: At-Home Monitoring of Sleep/Wake Cycles of Huntington’s Disease Patients, Amy Bradshaw Humphrey Memorial Award Winner
• Eleni Mina, PhD Candidate, Leiden University Medical Center, the Netherlands: A Novel Systems Medicine Approach for HD Biomarker and Therapeutic Target Discovery
• Dr. Shihao Shen, Post-doctoral Fellow, UCLA: Transcriptome Isoform Networks in Huntington’s Disease
• Dr. Eun Young Kim, Post-doctoral Fellow, University of Iowa: Developing a Robust Segmentation Pipeline that Allows for Consistent Trajectory Estimation of Huntington’s Disease Gene Positive Individuals  Across Multiple Longitudinal MRI sites
• Dr. Sonia Podvin, Post-doctoral Fellow, University of California at San Diego: Proximal Mutant Huntingtin Protein Interactions that Occur in a Polyglutamine Length-Dependent Manner in Human HD Brains
• Dr. Giulia Cisbani, Post-doctoral Fellow, University of Laval (Quebec): Microvesicles: Biomarker and Vehicle for the Propagation of Mutant Huntingtin Protein
• Dr. Alexander Buntru, Post-doctoral Fellow, Max Delbrueck Center for Molecular Medicine (Berlin, Germany): Development of a Novel FRET-based HTT Aggregation Assay as a Diagnostic Tool for Huntington’s Disease

For a complete summary of these eight research projects, please visit www.hdsa.org/research.

Uniquely, the HD Human Biology Project requires that all awardees propose to work in collaboration with at least one of the twenty HDSA Centers of Excellence across the USA.  The HDSA Centers of Excellence are a select network of academic medical centers providing expert multi-disciplinary care to HD patients and families from health professionals with deep passion in the area of Huntington’s disease. 

“The Human Biology Project is a testament to HDSA’s extraordinary commitment to support promising HD research,” said Louise Vetter, Chief Executive Officer of HDSA. “We take pride in providing the world’s finest HD services to the families we serve, but we also play an integral role in finding a cure for this devastating disease.”   

Thanks to the kind generosity of the Pittsburgh community, two of this year’s top scoring Human Biology Project proposals from Dr. Barbara Calamini (Duke University) and Dr. Dawn Loh (UCLA), were given the additional honor of being named winners of the Amy Bradshaw Humphrey Memorial Award.  Sadly, Amy passed away earlier this year after a long battle with HD.  

HDSA would also like to acknowledge the generosity of the Gies Foundation and CHDI Foundation.  Their support of the 2014 Human Biology Project allowed HDSA to double the number of awards made in 2013.  Most importantly, their support will enable more high-quality, impactful human HD research.

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. HD is known as the quintessential family disease because every child of a parent with HD has a 50/50 chance of carrying the faulty gene. Today, there are 30,000 symptomatic Americans and more than 200,000 at-risk of inheriting the disease.

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 1-800-345-HDSA.

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