Every year, the Million Dollar Bike Ride (MDBR), hosted by the Penn Medicine Orphan Disease Center (ODC), raises funds for a handful of rare diseases—and every year, Cure CMD’s incredible team rises to the challenge to raise funds for Collagen 6 Related Dystrophy. This year’s Cure CMD MDBR team raised an impressive $83,000, further augmented by matching dollars from the University of Pennsylvania (up to $30,000), bringing the total amount of funding available for Collagen 6 research to $113,000!
If you’re a researcher working in COL6-RD, submit an LOI by September 16, 2022 to be considered for funding. One $113,008 grant or two $56,504 grants are available in this disease area. The purpose of any proposed project should be to promote the discovery of underlying disease mechanisms and the preclinical development of potential therapies, as well as the translation of those efforts for COL6-RD. Areas of interest include, but are not limited to:
Understanding the cause of disease;
Understanding tissue-specific phenotypes
Unraveling pathways involved in disease;
Identifying novel drug targets or gene therapies;
Testing new strategies to treat disease or any of its incapacitating consequences (i.e. contractures, respiratory function decline).
The ODC will also accept applications proposing to create or improve disease models (i.e. animal models, patient-derived cell models), and encourage applications on biomarker discovery or functional outcome measures to assess therapeutic impact in an effort to bring COL6-RD closer to clinical trial readiness. Preference will be given to the continuation of previously funded research projects. Full applications (submitted by invitation only) due by October 17. Details can be found on the Orphan Disease Center website. For the latest updates, follow the MDBR on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn.