BBRI News

NIH funds new Wellstone Research Center for Muscular Dystrophy at Boston Biomedical Research Institute

BOSTON (Watertown), Mass.—September 10, 2008 - The US National Institutes of Health (NIH) have awarded $9 million to launch a unique collaboration of researchers, clinicians, patients, government research agencies and pharmaceutical/biomedical companies to study the causes and potential treatments for facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy (FSHD), a muscle weakening and disabling disease that affects, at the least, one in 20,000 individuals worldwide. The award will create the first Senator Wellstone Muscular Dystrophy Cooperative Research Center (MD CRC) to focus on FSHD, the award recipients announced today.
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Powerful New Cooperative Research Model Possible at Independent Research Institutes

WATERTOWN, Mass. –April 11, 2008 –“Drug makers turning to nonprofits for cash,” [April 7, 2008, Section C] detailed the partnership between biotech/pharmaceutical companies and private foundations to search for cures.  Missing was the role that patients have in bringing these vital partnerships into being with advocacy and start-up funds.  Patient involvement in the therapeutic development pipeline is equally important as basic, translational, and clinical research efforts.
full release
Wallack, Todd. “Drug Makers Turning to Nonprofits for Cash.” Boston Globe 4/07/08.