Hope for People with Neurological Disorders

We have seen exciting progress in recent months! The Hope Center has grown to 157 laboratories. More than 800 scientists are now collaboratively working on cutting edge, innovative research projects. 

The Hope Center continues to provide  JIT (just-in-time) Funding. This funding enables Hope Center investigators to test novel ideas about the genetics/genomics underlying the mechanism of a brain disorder or a potential therapy – testing which requires use of a shared facility. To date this year, there have been three awards:

• Dr. Cavalli: Sensory neuron responses to spinal cord injury
• Dr. Kress: Circadian clock influence on Alzheimer’s disease pathogenesis
• Dr. Diwan: Protein dis-aggregation in Alzheimer’s disease and cardiomyopathies

Your contributions allow scientists to receive funding for exciting early-stage research and to respond quickly to promising new pathways discovered in the course of inter-disciplinary research.  The Hope Center provides funding for investigators to test cutting-edge ideas.

Some ongoing Hope Center research that is sponsored through your generous donations:

• Develop a novel therapy that will re-program a sub-type of cell in the retina, with the goal of treating degeneration that leads to blindness.
• Identify biomarkers of chemotherapy-induced neuropathy.
• Understand the molecular mechanisms behind a particular genetic pathway that leads to increased risk for Alzheimer’s disease.
• Investigate a sub-population of glioblastoma (brain tumor) cells that are thought to drive tumor growth and treatment resistance.

This summer Hope Happens coordinated a visit to the Center. Alll guests learned more about neurodegeneration and how the Hope Center aims to better understand this biological process and develop therapies.  On touring the lab space, we had the lucky break to run into Dr. Bateman who talked to the group about development of a blood test for Alzheimer’s, and how financial support from the Hope Center many years ago helped push along his research.  He also invited our group into the mass spec room to learn and watch in real time, his lab’s efforts to identify diagnostic markers in Alzheimer’s disease.

All donors are welcome to join our next tour of the Center. Please email wendy@hopehappens.org to register.

Last, but not least, we are proud to report that Hope Center Director Dr. Holtzman has received the August M. Watanabe Prize in Translational Research from @IndianaCTSI for his work uncovering the causes of Alzheimer's Disease and translating an understanding of its basic biology into potential therapies.

Please also check the links below for more information about ongoing collaborative research projects and results. 

Links:

• Holtzman awarded Watanabe Prize in Translational Research
• A Blood Test for Alzheimer's? It's Coming
• $9.5 million aimed at detecting autism earlier in childhood