In the News - Researchers Recognized

March of Dimes Awards $250,000 Prize to Scientists Unraveling the Causes of Muscular Dystrophy

    BALTIMORE, May 6 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Two scientists whose work
has led to new and better ways to diagnose and potentially treat muscular
dystrophy have been chosen to receive the 2009 March of Dimes Prize in
Developmental Biology.

   Kevin P. Campbell, Ph.D. and Louis M. Kunkel, Ph.D., share the 2009
March of Dimes Prize for their pioneering work identifying the genes and
proteins that cause muscular dystrophy, a disorder in which the muscles
progressively degenerate. More than 250,000 Americans are affected by the
nine forms of muscular dystrophy and other related neuromuscular disorders.
Among this group are facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy and limb girdle
muscular dystrophy, as well as childhood conditions such as Duchenne and
Becker muscular dystrophies and congenital muscular dystrophy.

To read the complete press release.