On October 31, Defeat Duchenne Canada was pleased to join Andrew and Kerri Sedmihradksy and Peter and Jean Sedmihradsky of Max’s Big Ride in presenting our commitment of $336,000 to Dr. Patrick Gunning, Professor of Chemistry and Canada Research Chair in Medicinal Chemistry Tier II at the University of Toronto Mississauga.

This year, Max’s Big Ride, named for Andrew and Kerri’s seven year old son Max who has Duchenne, raised $35,000 and led to the establishment of Max’s Big Fellowship, a new PhD fellowship in association with The Gunning Group. This new fellowship, awarded to PhD candidate Yasir Raouf, is focused on the study of STAT3 inhibitors in treating Duchenne muscular dystrophy.

In May 2017, the Defeat Duchenne Canada Board of Directors, on the recommendation of the Research Funding Advisory Committee, approved a $300,000 grant to Dr. Gunning and his team to fund a pre-clinical study of the use of STAT3 and other protein inhibitors to treat Duchenne. This is an exciting and revolutionary study – the first of its kind.Click here for more information about the study and how you can get involved.

For more information about the research funded by Defeat Duchenne Canada, please click here.