gene therapy
July 21, 2017
Kevin Kaifer #IAmScience
Kevin Kaifer, a Ph.D candidate who works in Dr. Christian Lorson’s lab. | Photo by Mary Jane Rogers, Bond LSC By Mary Jane Rogers | Bond LSC “#IAmScience because there are people suffering all over the world and this is where I’m most likely to make any kind of an impact.” When he came to MU three years ago, Kevin Kaifer knew he wanted to work in Bond LSC. He felt it was where the best science and collaborations were happening on campus, and everything that he needed for his research – a vivarium, a DNA…
May 23, 2016
One step closer from mice to men
Gene therapy treating the neurodegenerative disease, SMARD1, shows promising results in mice studies. Shababi uses an instrument to measure grip strength in the forelimbs of mice. Healthy mice are able to cling on with a stronger grip than SMARD1 mice. | photo by Jennifer Lu, Bond LSC Monir Shababi was confident her experiments treating a rare genetic disease would yield positive results before she even ran them. Scientists had success with a similar degenerative neuromuscular disease, so she had every expectation their strategy would work just as well in her mice. Monir…
Aug. 4, 2014
Viruses as Vehicles: Finding what drives
Graduate students Yuleam Song and Dan Salamango inoculate a bacteria culture in Johnson’s lab. The inoculation takes a small portion of a virus and multiplies the sample, allowing researchers to custom-make viruses. By Madison Knapp | Bond Life Sciences Center summer intern Modern science has found a way to turn viruses —tiny, dangerous weapons responsible for runny noses, crippling stomach pains and worldwide epidemics such as AIDS— into a tool. Gene therapy centers on the idea that scientists can hijack viruses and use them as vehicles to deliver DNA to organs in the body that…
July 16, 2014
Researchers flex new muscle in SMA drug development
By Paige Blankenbuehler Lauren and Claire Gibbs share contagious laughter, ambition and a charismatic sarcasm. Both are honor students at Shawnee Mission East High School in a Kansas City suburb. They also share a neuromuscular disease called spinal muscular atrophy (SMA), designated as an “orphan disease” because it affects fewer than 200,000 people in the U.S. However, the landscape for individuals with SMA is quickly changing with the development of new drugs. More than 7 million people in the United States are carriers (approximately 1 in 40) of the so-called “rare” neurodegenerative disease, SMA. Lauren,17 (left) and Claire, 16 (right),…