New CMT Funding: Scientist at McLaughlin lands $2.3 million in grants

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New CMT Funding: Scientist at McLaughlin lands $2.3 million in grants

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By ERIN MADISON

Tribune Staff Writer

Wiggle your toes.

Your brain just sent a message to your little piggies, they wiggled

and sent the message back to your brain — all that in a tiny

fraction of a second.

Your nerves' speediness relies heavily on a fatty sheath, called

myelin, which covers the nerve cells.

Without that myelin, nerve transmission would be about 100 times

slower, said Bermingham, a scientist at the McLaughlin Research

Institute. Nerve transmissions would be so slow that when people

feel themselves losing their balance, they would fall on the ground

before their brain sends a signal to shift their weight.

A couple years ago, Bermingham identified a gene that plays an

important role in the production of myelin in mice.

He recently secured $2.3 million in grants to continue his research

on that gene and the role it plays in neurological diseases.

A number of diseases affect the production of myelin and the

transmission of messages between nerves.

" You can't repair a broken car if you don't understand how the car

works in the first place, " Bermingham said.

Bermingham's research will help to understand the way the nervous

system works.

That understanding may help researchers and doctors cure some

neurological diseases down the road.

The gene Bermingham identified, which is called Lgi4, only plays a

role in the peripheral nervous system — that's the part of the

nervous system that does not include the brain or the spinal cord.

Bermingham's research probably won't help cure diseases that affect

the central nervous system, such as multiple sclerosis.

However, it could help with peripheral nervous system diseases such

as Charcot-Marie-Tooth syndrome, better known as CMT. CMT affects

about one in every 25,000 people, making it a fairly common disease,

Bermingham said. In its most mild form, it causes limb weakness,

meaning someone might have to wear a leg brace. In its more severe

form, it can cause infants to die at birth because they're unable to

take their first breath.

The majority of Bermingham's funding — $1.8 million of it — came

from a National Institutes of Health grant.

" It's a huge accomplishment to get an NIH grant, " said Crum,

assistant director of operations and development at McLaughlin.

The remainder of the funding came from grants from the Muscular

Dystrophy Association and the European Leukodystrophy Association.

Bermingham had to apply and compete for the three grants.

The majority of McLaughlin's funding comes from scientist-initiated

grants like these, Crum said.

More about McLaughlin Research Institute

http://www.montana.edu/wwwmri/