Grant Awarded

The CRFC awards a 1-year grant of $60,000 CAD to Dr. Miguel Seabra at Imperial College, London, UK to study "Non-viral Gene Therapy in Choroideremial Mouse Models".

In his proposal, Dr. Seabra states, "This research proposal highlights a novel gene therapy approach to treating and possibly curing choroideremia (CHM) patients. CHM patients lack a functional copy of a gene called REP1. This proposal involves technology to introduce the missing gene into the retinas of CHM patients. Furthermore, he states, "We will initially produce a new non-viral scaffold carrying the REP! gene. This approach may pave the way to cure for CHM patients."

This work is preliminary and sets the groundwork for future potential treatments. We are very excited and hope to see results in mid-2009.