Jackson Laboratory receives $22.8 million grant for gene-editing based work

BAR HARBOR, Maine (WABI) - Researchers aiming to develop and validate new gene-editing based therapeutic approaches have gotten a substantial financial investment.

Jackson Laboratory has received a grant worth $22.8 million from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke.

The work being done revolves around four different neurological conditions including Spinal Muscular Atrophy, Friedreich’s Ataxia, Huntington’s Disease and Rett Syndrome.

It hopes to revolutionize treatment for at least one of these diseases and subsequently provide a path forward for not just the other three but a range of other genetic diseases as well.

“There is just this gap, you know, from, from the knowledge of what we have and the ability to build these technologies to the actual treatment in these patients. And we think that developing these types of therapeutics and these modalities is just going to, you know, bridge that gap, you know, ways that we haven’t really seen before. So, we’re excited not only about the technology, but I think mostly we’re excited for the patients because I think this is going to be incredibly meaningful for them,” said Dr. Cat Lutz, vice president of the Jackson Laboratory Rare Disease Translational Center.

If you’d like to learn more about the work being done at the lab you can click here.

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