Wake Up Narcolepsy Supports Cutting Edge Local Research « Wake Up Narcolepsy

Wake Up Narcolepsy Supports Cutting Edge Local Research

August 10th, 2009

Boston, MA

Wake Up Narcolepsy presented a $7,500 check to Dr. Tom Scammell of Beth Israel Deaconess and Harvard Medical School in Boston.  Dr. Scammell’s is currently researching new ways to help better treat narcolepsy patients by  focusingon the neurobiology of narcolepsy, these funds will be used to advance his group’s gene therapy project.

Dr. Scammell explained, “We are having encouraging results with gene therapy in mice with narcolepsy: using a small virus, we can induce thousands of neurons to make hypocretin, and we are seeing clear improvements in the sleepiness and cataplexy of these mice.” Improving the narcolepsy of mice is an encouraging first step, and hopefully this approach will help people with narcolepsy in the future.