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DMD research

Developing Gene Therapy For DMD

Our Partnership

We are co-funding a project called 'Developing gene therapy for Duchenne muscular dystrophy' by Professor George Dickson, of Royal Holloway University, London.

What Is Transplicing?

This gene therapy project aims to deliver a functioning full size dystrophn gene to a muscle cell, using a harmless virus. Previous research has delivered a less than full size gene (a mini- or micro-dystrophin gene) because the information in the dystrophin gene was too large for one virus to carry.

This approach tackles this problem by using two or three viruses, each carrying a different part of the dystrophin gene. When in the muscle cell, the different parts join together to form a full size dystrophin protein. This approach is called transplicing

What Is Happening With Clinical Trials?

This research aims to use gene therapy to create the full size dystrophin protein. If this is successful this could lead to further pre-clinical work which could lead to clinical trials.

The project was funded through the Duchenne Forum. The other members of the Duchenne Forum are MDUK, The Duchenne Research Fund, Harrison's Fund and Alex's Wish.

Published on 4 July 2016

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