Awaiting the News - NIH Funding For FSHD Research in Seattle

Dr. Stephen Tapscott, based at the Fred Hutchinson Research Center was one of the Friends of FSH Research's pilot grants in 2006. He and Dr. Dan Miller received a two-year grant for $100,000 for their study "FSHMD Related Defects in Human Myogenesis." This was just the beginning.....

A grant application was sent to NIH in May 2009 that includes several collaborative projects on FSHD to be conducted by the Fields Center in collaboration with the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle. This application will solidify the Fields Center’s collaboration with Dr. Stephen Tapscott’s laboratory in Seattle as well as bring in two additional research groups at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center solidly into the FSHD research arena. We are very hopeful that this proposal will be funded because of the strength of the research data presented and the fact that the Field Center provides the necessary infrastructure to assure the success of this venture. If funded, this project will significantly boost the research efforts into finding the cause of FSHD and the development of a rational approach to treatment.

from The Fields Center's, University of Rochester
Wellstone Muscular Dystrophy Center


We are eagerly and anxiously awaiting word from the NIH regarding this larger, more expansive grant application funding. If awarded, the Tapscott laboratories will have the funding to move this work at a more rapid pace and those with FSH Muscular Dystrophy will have reason to have great hope!