Using brain imaging technology, researchers at the University of Nottingham, United Kingdom, are working on a way to develop biomarkers for ataxia-telangiectasia that may enable and accelerate future clinical trials. Biomarkers are indirect measures of the underlying disease process that can help to assess whether or not drugs work.
Drs. Robert Dineen and Dorothee Auer at the University of Nottingham are aiming to develop biomarkers for A-T using modern imaging techniques. They are recruiting 30 patients from the United Kingdom National A-T Clinic and 20 age-matched people without A-T (controls). These individuals will undergo advanced magnetic resonance imaging. If the researchers find differences between the two groups that are significant, the results will be validated. Then, the new biomarkers can be used during future clinical trials to measure whether the therapy being tested is effective.
Several A-T organizations have been working together to make this research grant happen. The idea for the project stems directly from an A-T clinical research conference held by the A-T Society in the UK, and it is being funded jointly by the A-T Children’s Project and Action for A-T, also in the UK.