Dr. Cristin Davidson has been researching treatments for NPC for a decade, including cyclodextrin, a treatment she discovered in early 2006. Dr. Steven Walkley has spent more than 30 years researching lysosomal diseases like NPC.
Drs. Davidson and Walkley coordinate with SOAR (Support Of Accelerated Research), a collaboration of multiple labs dedicated to developing NPC treatments.
Drs. Davidson and Walkley have been working hard to refine their understanding of cyclodextrin in order to make it even more effective for NPC treatment.
Dr. Kartik Chandran and his team are at the forefront of Ebola virus research, and discovered the link between the NPC1 gene and Ebola's ability to infect the body.
"We essentially took cells and knocked the genes out of them randomly...when you knocked NPC1 out of the cell, Ebola was absolutely unable to infect that cell."
Cells donated by NPC-affected patients through Coriell allow Dr. Chandran's team to continue researching treatments for Ebola and other similar viruses. In turn, Dr. Chandran's detailed research into the NPC1 gene may help develop treatments for NPC.
"...by working on really basic aspects of how the virus uses our own cells in our body and exploits them...we could find Achilles' heels for this virus so that we could actually develop a treatment."
