Our top Usher 1F researcher, David Corey, is quoted in this NY Times about the threats to his Usher 1F research. We are so close, and now a cure is threatened. Maryna Ivanchenko, our gifted MD, PhD, research scientist and ophthalmologist in the Corey lab, recently applied for an NIH grant specifically for their Usher 1F work. If this grant does not come through, and right now, like so many grant applications, it is sitting in limbo, Usher 1F Collaborative will have to cover the cost in order for this work to proceed. This will put significant pressure on our small foundation.
For all of you who live in the United States, please help us by calling and writing to ask your senators and representative to restore and maintain NIH research funding.
Read this wonderful story about Usher 1F Collaborative Canada and the Forte family's work for a cure. If you're in Ontario, please buy a Catch the Ace ticket for a chance to win while helping fund Usher 1F research for a cure.
Terrific coverage of David Corey's Usher 1F research - "Now, seven years later, about two-thirds of Corey’s team works in gene therapy with a large focus on developing a treatment for Usher syndrome type 1F—work led by Maryna Ivanchenko, MD, PhD, an instructor in the Corey lab."
Researchers have designed a “mini gene” therapy that could hold promise for treating Usher Syndrome Type 1F
Melissa and Rachel Chaikof are in @cttnpodcast 's podcast! From the discovery of Rachel's diagnosis of deafness at a young age to Usher's Type 1 later on, and her fight against it all these years to Melissa and her husband starting the Usher 1F Collaborative and the commitment to research for a cure. Check out the new episode today!
It's on Youtube too: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_In3Snj9K1U
A summary of Usher 1F researcher David Corey's presentation to the World Medical Innovation Forum, Gene and Cell Therapy, on his work for a cure for Usher 1F and the success he has realized thus far.
Jaime Recht, who has Usher 1F, is running the Boston Marathon to raise funds for research for a cure. Despite declining vision, nothing stops her!
Global Genes interview with Usher 1F Board Chair Melissa Chaikof
“Aside from retinoid replacement, we can also think about developing more permanent therapies to treat or prevent blindness in people with Usher syndrome type 1F that may correct or replace the other functions of protocadherin-15, as well.” – Zubair M. Ahmed, Professor of Otorhinolaryngology—Head & Neck surgery and Ophthalmology, University of Maryland
Amanda is a PhD student in the lab of Usher 1F researcher Vincent Tropepe at the University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada, investigating disease modelling for retinal development and disease mechanisms. She is first author on ‘ Usher syndrome type 1-associated gene, pcdh15b, is required for photoreceptor structural integrity in zebrafish’, published in DMM. (PCDH15 is the gene on which mutations cause Usher 1F.)
