On Saturday May 9th, Lauren Boudewyn of the Walkley Lab will be participating in in the 35 mile UPenn Million Dollar Bike Ride for Rare Disease Research ! Lauren is raising funds for MLIV research (which you may have heard her talk about at WIP!). The NGSO wishes Lauren the best of luck reaching her $400 funding goal.

If you’d like to contribute, please check out Lauren’s site:

Million Dollar Bike Ride: Team Cure ML4

Additional Information from UPenn GivingPages:

Join Me in the Fight to Cure MLIV!

Mucolipidosis Type IV (MLIV) is a lysosomal storage disorder of the brain in which the cell’s recycling center (the lysosome) is not functioning properly to remove cellular debris, leading to the pathological accumulation of material inside cells. In the case of MLIV, this problem arises from mutations in the gene encoding a cation channel located on the lysosome itself, called mucolipin-1. Despite what is known about mucolipin-1, it is not known what exactly is happening in MLIV to neurons lacking the activity of this protein that leads to the disease. Children with MLIV develop intellectual disability, motor deficits, and severe retinal degeneration often resulting in blindness. There is currently no cure or corrective therapy.

My Story

I am a third year graduate student in the Neuroscience Department at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the laboratory of Dr. Steven Walkley, and am focusing my pre-doctoral thesis research on studying MLIV disease. I am researching the specific mechanisms behind MLIV neuronal pathology to better our understanding of the disease and work towards developing potential therapies. Last year I rode 35 miles in the Million Dollar Bike Ride in support of rare disease research and to help raise funds supporting the ML4 Foundation, to work towards a cure. I am very excited to participate again!

For more information about MLIV and to hear some of the children’s stories, please follow this link: http://www.ml4.org/

For more information about the Million Dollar Bike Ride, please follow this link: http://www.milliondollarbikeride.org/