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Collaborations

The Fields Center’s main objective is the advancement of knowledge about the underlying cause of FSHD with the ultimate goal of finding effective, targeted treatments.  To that end, we have established multiple collaborations with researchers at other institutions and will continue to expand our network or collaborators.

Fields Center Collaborations

• Radboud University, Nijmegen, Netherlands:Professors George Padberg and Baziel van Engelen are major collaborators of the Fields Center.Dr. Padberg is a world authority on the clinical and genetic features of FSHD and has written extensively on the subject.The Fields Center is working on several clinical research projects with both Drs. Padberg and van Engelen including organizing a conference on the management of FSHD to be held in 2009 in Naarden, Netherlands under the sponsorship of the European Neuromuscular Center with support from the Fields Center.
• University of California, Irvine, CA: Dr. Sara Winokur has collaborated closely with Fields Center investigators for many years.Her laboratory has done some of the early FSHD expression profiling studies and has described the unique relationship between 4qtel and the nuclear envelope.

• Tulane University, New Orleans, LA: Dr. Melanie Ehrlich is a molecular geneticist with an interest in methylation changes in chromatin as it relates to cancer.She has used her expertise to study the chromatin and methylation changes on 4q35 in FSHD.The Fields Center has provided myoblast cell lines and other resources to Dr. Ehrlich who has in turn obtained muscle biopsies to help the Fields Center generate additional cell lines.

• University of Minnesota: Dr. Michael Kyba has an interest in the therapeutic potential of stem cells.He is testing the hypothesis that DUX4 derepression in muscle stem cells results in FSHD.The Fields Center has provided Dr. Kyba with a number of myoblast cell lines.

• McMaster University, Hamilton, Canada: Dr. Mark Tarnopolsky is a professor of Neurology and expert in neuromuscular metabolic disorders. He is currently assisting the Fields Center in collecting clinical data as well as blood and muscle biopsy samples for use in our studies.
• Institut de Myologie, Paris, France: Dr. Jillian Butler Brown from the French Institute of Myology is collaborating with Dr. van der Maarel in Leiden in the development of an immortalized FSHD cell line.

• Boston Wellstone Center, Boston, MA: Dr. Charles Emerson and Dr. Louis Kunkel are the principal investigators of the newly funded Senator Paul Wellstone Muscular Dystrophy Cooperative Research Center.This Wellstone Center’semphasis is on FSHD. The Fields Center investigators will be meeting with Drs. Emerson and Kunkel to discuss how best to maximize the research yield of both centers by collaborating and sharing resources.

 

For more information, please contact the Fields Center FieldsCenter@urmc.rochester.edu