To crack the code of FSHD, patients are absolutely essential
All of the breakthroughs—the discovery of the genetic causes, understanding why some patients vary so greatly in the severity of their symptoms, teasing out the biochemical pathways that could point to future treatments—were made because patients stepped up to the plate.
Too often, we hear patients say they’ll volunteer when there’s a treatment. But we will never get to a treatment unless patients participate in fundamental research now. FSHD is uniquely human, so no laboratory mouse can ever fully model the disease. The genetic “package” that causes FSHD is found only in people. We owe an enormous debt to the patients who give DNA samples. Who submit to long interviews and exhausting physical tests. Allow a surgeon to cut out a small muscle sample. Who fight claustrophobia to lie in the narrow bore of an MRI machine.
Equally important are patients’ family members, both affected and unaffected, who provide the best experimental controls because of their shared genetic and environmental backgrounds. A parent or sibling who has very mild symptoms may hold the key to understanding the factors that protect against the full-blown development of FSHD symptoms in a more severely affected family member.
We are more hopeful today than ever before that a treatment is within sight. We cannot guarantee when that treatment will arrive, but here’s one thing we guarantee: If you volunteer for research, your participation will without question help move us a step closer to that day.
Scientific Overview of FSHD
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Glossary of Scientific Terms
The Future is Now for Clinical Trials
Our community has been promised for decades that “one day in the future” there will be treatments for FSHD, and so it’s amazing to realize that day is almost upon… Read More »
A new, improved CRISPR-Cas9 technology
By Angela Lek, PhD Yale University The discovery of CRISPR-Cas9 gene-editing technology has undoubtedly revolutionized the field of human genetics, enabling for the first time in human… Read More »
miRecule, Inc., is developing a novel treatment for FSHD
In their offices in Maryland, just northwest of Washington, DC, miRecule Inc. and its founder Anthony Saleh, PhD, are hard at work developing a novel treatment for FSHD. In the… Read More »
Progress Report on Therapeutic Accelerator for FSHD
Last week, Mark Stone, the FSHD Society president and CEO, gave his fourth-quarter progress report on the Therapeutic Accelerator for FSHD treatments. His presentation was given via webinar to leadership… Read More »