METHODOLOGY The Research and Education Newsletter of Houston Methodist
Summer 2018
Houston Methodist Readies 71 Sites for Neuroregenerative Clinical Trials by Gale Smith
A $6 million, five-year clinical trial readiness grant funded by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke will be led by Tetsuo Ashizawa, MD, director of the neurosciences research program at Houston Methodist. He will marshal the combined forces of 71 institutions across the globe in establishing the world’s largest cohort of subjects facing the earliest stages of a rare, inherited neurodegenerative disorder, spinocerebellar ataxia. Spinocerebellar ataxia (SCA) is characterized by degeneration of the brain and spinal cord with progressive clumsiness and difficulty balancing, typically leading to total disability and death. It causes loss of neurons in the cerebellum, which controls coordination, and leads to progressive uncontrollable irregularity of hand, speech and eye movement. The degeneration process mimics that of Huntington’s disease, Parkinson’s disease and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).
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By leading this global collaboration, we empower researchers to collect data about this rare disease, which otherwise would be unobtainable.
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– Mauro Ferrari, PhD President & CEO Houston Methodist Research Institute