PRESS RELEASES

Bridging Systems Biology and Neurodegeneration Research to Uncover Causes of Neuropsychiatric Disease (Download Bridging ISB.pdf)

What makes some of us more prone to depression? Or anxiety? Or compulsions and addiction? Recent breakthroughs in biomedicine have changed the way we approach disease and brought us ever closer to understanding these debilitating conditions.

Gladstone and Institute for Systems Biology Collaborate to Discover New Genes Associated with the Onset of Huntington’s Disease (Download ISB.pdf)

SAN FRANCISCO, CA – June 15, 2010 – The Institute for Systems Biology (ISB) of Seattle, WA, is collaborating with the Gladstone Institute of Neurological Disease (GIND) and its Taube-Koret Center for Huntington’s Disease Research to use whole-genome sequencing to identify genes and novel drug targets related to the onset and progression of Huntington’s disease (HD). The research team, led by GIND associate director and senior investigator Steven Finkbeiner, MD, PhD, will also use induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells from patients with HD to screen for drugs that might delay, prevent, or even reverse this devastating condition.

Gladstone and Partners Receive $3.7 Million to Use Stem Cell Technology for Huntington’s Disease Research (Download Partners.pdf)

SAN FRANCISCO, CA – October 13, 2009 – The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has awarded a “Grand Opportunity” grant of $3.7 million to a consortium formed with the Gladstone Institute of Neurological Disease (GIND) and the Taube-Koret Center for Huntington’s Disease Research to use stem cell technology to better understand Huntington’s disease (HD) and to develop potential therapies. The consortium comprises a partnership of five leading Huntington’s research laboratories at the University of Wisconsin, Massachusetts General Hospital, the University of California at Irvine, Johns Hopkins and the Gladstone Institutes. The consortium will use induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cell technology pioneered by Gladstone and Kyoto University’s Shinya Yamanaka, MD, PhD, to develop human neurons with Huntington’s disease characteristics. iPS technology enables stem cells to be generated from skin samples from adults and avoids the ethical issues surrounding the use of fetal stem cells.

Gladstone Scientists Identify Role of Key Protein in ALS and Frontotemporal Dementia (Download TDP43.pdf)

SAN FRANCISCO, CA – January 13, 2010—Scientists at the Gladstone Institute of Neurological Disease (GIND) have identified the reason a key protein plays a major role in two neurodegenerative diseases. In the current edition of the Journal of Neuroscience, researchers in the laboratory of GIND Associate Director Steven Finkbeiner, MD, PhD have found how the protein TDP-43 may cause the neurodegeneration associated with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and frontotemporal lobar degeneration with ubiquitin-positive inclusion bodies (FTLDu). TDP-43, is the major component of protein aggregates in patients with these diseases. Mutations in the TDP-43 gene are also associated with familial forms of ALS and FTLDu.

Gladstone Institutes Establishes Taube-Koret Center for Huntington’s Disease Research (Download TKC 2020.pdf)

SAN FRANCISCO, CA – March 25, 2009 – The J. David Gladstone Institutes has joined forces with Taube Philanthropies and the Koret Foundation to initiate a groundbreaking research program aimed at preventing, treating, or curing Huntington’s disease (HD) by the year 2020. The new Taube-Koret Center for Huntington’s Disease Research has been established at the Gladstone Center for Translational Research at Mission Bay, with $3.6 million in funding from the two organizations.