January is birthday month at our house. We have four birthdays in January. That’s almost half of our family celebrating their arrivals on the planet in the same month. Our newest addition, our 3-week-old daughter Callie, was born on Jan. 9, joining Rowen, who turned 13 on Jan. 21; Charlie,…
Significantly higher levels of sphingolipids — a type of fatty molecule involved in inflammation, scarring, and cell death — are evident in the muscles of people with Duchenne muscular dystrophy and a DMD mouse model than in those of their healthy counterparts, a study shows. Notably, suppressing sphingolipid production in…
Life expectancy has been increasing in patients with Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD), according to an analysis of some 40 years of data, spanning births from before 1970 to the late 2000s. In fact, the median life expectancy of males with DMD born in the late 1990s advanced to more than…
My family stands out. I’ve shared that with you before. The sheer number of children is enough to make us different. But three boys with Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD), often seen in their wheelchairs, make us even more for the eye to take in. Standing out was hard…
A potentially pivotal Phase 3 clinical trial called HOPE-3, which will test the effectiveness of the experimental cell therapy CAP-1002 as a treatment for Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD), is expected to launch soon. Capricor Therapeutics, the company developing CAP-1002, announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration…
A protein called GCN5 is vital for normal muscle health and helps to coordinate the expression of several important muscle proteins, including dystrophin, according to a study done in mice. The results suggest that targeting GCN5 may be a useful therapeutic avenue in diseases of the muscles, such as…
A 7-mile hike with a 1,000-foot elevation gain was on the schedule for our second day of camping at Point Mugu State Park near Malibu, California. I was with our small Boy Scout Troop 911, which operated out of my elementary school in Huntington Beach. It was a…
My marriage is one of the most important things in my life. Shortly after my sons were diagnosed with Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD), I heard a staggering statistic about the divorce rate among DMD parents. Issues like financial strain, stress, exhaustion, depression, and grief can create problems in the…
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has placed a hold on Dyne Therapeutics’ application to launch a clinical trial evaluating DYNE-251, an experimental exon-skipping therapy for Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD). Dyne now hopes to have that Phase 1/2 trial underway by June, the company said in a …
Every year, many of us commit to resolutions for the new year, but often we find ourselves giving up on them within the first few months. Sometimes even sooner. These new resolutions seek to empower us to make changes in our lives, but it is not how we think about…
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