Finding a way around all obstacles
by June Kinoshita, FSHD Society
One lesson Michelle Mellion, MD, absorbed from seeing patients at a Muscular Dystrophy Association (MDA) neuromuscular clinic is that people with FSHD “are great adapters, using what they can and taking what they have learned about themselves and FSHD to overcome any challenges to accomplish their goals.”
A neurologist and faculty member at Brown University’s Warren Alpert Medical School at the time, Mellion says the patients have inspired her to this day as she navigates through multiple roles in academia and biopharma companies. After earning her undergraduate degree in molecular biology at Colgate University, Mellion attended Wake Forest University Medical School for her MD and completed her internship in medicine, residency in neurology, and fellowship in clinical neurophysiology at Brown University. At Brown, she spent more than a decade teaching, conducting research, and seeing patients.
After transitioning to industry, with roles at Biogen and Vertex, Mellion led development of the FSHD program at Fulcrum Therapeutics through Phase 2 clinical trials. Currently, as chief medical officer at PepGen, Mellion leads the development of oligonucleotide therapeutics for rare neuromuscular diseases. Even while working in industry, Mellion continued to serve the neuromuscular community as an attending physician in the MDA clinic at Brown and then at the pediatric neurology clinic affiliated with Tufts University.
She continues to make significant contributions to FSHD through her role as medical advisor to the FSHD Society. The path to treatments has not been smooth. “We may hit a couple of bumps along the way,” she notes, “but just as people living with FSHD do, we researchers will also have to take the time to examine what we have learned. People living with FSHD do not give up. If there is not a straight path forward, they will find a way around,” she says. “This community inspires me to do my best every day.”
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