Oxford-Harrington Rare Disease Centre offers new grants to treat Friedrich’s Ataxia

The Oxford-Harrington Rare Disease Centre (OHC), a partnership between the University of Oxford and Harrington Discovery Institute in Cleveland, Ohio, has received a £650,000 donation to launch two new grant award programmes.

These awards – the FA Alliance Catalyst Fund and the FA Alliance Innovation Fund – aim to support research and development of much-needed therapeutics for Friedreich’s Ataxia (FA), a rare degenerative disease that affects roughly 1 in 50,000 people in the UK and US.

Individuals with FA have genetic mutations that result in a deficiency in the production of a protein called frataxin, causing progressive damage and cell death.

This leads to the initial symptoms of FA, such as tiredness, vision and hearing loss, chest pain, slow or slurred speech, difficulty walking and a loss of sensation and reflexes.

Despite extensive research, there’s currently no cure for FA, meaning that significant progress is still required to advance new therapeutics for patients in need.

In 2021, the OHC established a dedicated programme for recruiting leading disease area experts and coordinating substantial research efforts towards developing new treatments for the disease.

So far, 18 leading researchers have been recruited and a pipeline of FA projects has been created.

The programme is supported by the non-profit organisations EndFA, The Friedreich’s Ataxia Research Alliance (FARA), and Ataxia UK, and is collectively known as the Friedreich’s Ataxia Alliance at Oxford (FA Alliance).

The FA Alliance Catalyst Fund and the FA Alliance Innovation Fund are now set to accelerate cutting-edge research currently underway within the OHC for the development of a treatment for FA.

The Catalyst Fund will leverage co-funding and support from the University of Oxford’s Translational Research Office to fund research scientists already tackling FA.

Meanwhile, the Innovation Fund will specifically advance earlier-stage ideas with little or no preliminary data that aim to explore highly innovative, potentially ground-breaking concepts in FA research.

Matthew Wood is director and chief scientific officer of the OHC and professor of neuroscience at Oxford’s Department of Paediatrics.

He said:“Today’s announcement validates and underscores OHC’s commitment to driving innovation and collaboration in research towards new therapeutics to meet the major unmet need of Friedreich’s Ataxia.

“We’re extremely grateful for the support received, which is enabling the launch of these two new award programmes.

“Through OHC and the FA Alliance, we’re bringing a multidisciplinary team of leading researchers and clinicians together to tackle this challenging rare disease as one of our priority areas.

“Strengthened by the complementary expertise of the Harrington Discovery Institute, this new funding will both accelerate existing projects and advance new projects with the aim of developing a therapeutic to cure or treat FA.”