We are happy to announce that Dr. Or Kakhlon, of Hadassah-Hebrew University Medical Center and Prof. Miguel Weil, Ph.D. of Tel Aviv University have been awarded a biannual $343,000 grant from the Israel Chief Scientist to study the effect of new compounds in APBD modeling mice. The compounds were discovered at The Cell Screening Facility for Personalized Medicine (TAU), using high throughput screening (HTS) processes.

This grant is the largest single grant ever awarded for APBD research, surpassing a 2013 grant from the Association Francaise contre les Myopathies (AFM), which was awarded in 2013.

Recognition and deep thanks to Orly Shani and our sister Israeli charitable organization IsrApbdf for promoting this and other APBD research opportunities.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

In addition, we are proud to report that the patients, friends, family members, and colleagues of the APBD community raised $50,000 for the University of Pennsylvania's Million Dollar Bike Ride for rare disease research. Due to the unique provisions of the event, whereby UPenn matches the fundraising on a dollar-for-dollar basis, grants totaling $100,000 will be awarded on January 1, 2017.

Co-Captains Susan Coddon and Harriet Saxe organized the fundraising efforts and marshaled our 15 dedicated riders in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on May 7th.