On December 18, the A-T Children’s Project sent out the below email to A-T parents in the United States inviting their children with and without A-T to participate in the A-T Biomarker Development Initiative.
THE A-T BIOMARKER DEVELOPMENT INITIATIVE
Join us in identifying desperately needed biomarkers to improve the development of therapies for A-T.
The A-T Biomarker Development Initiative is an effort by the A-T Children’s Project to find biological changes in blood samples that could serve as indicators of the neurodegenerative process (loss of brain cells) occurring in people with A-T. Having reliable, measurable biomarkers that could tell researchers whether a drug is working would be a game changer for the development of new therapies. Although we don’t expect immediate benefits to participants enrolling in this study, they can know that discoveries resulting from this study were critical to advancing new treatments and would not have been possible without them.
We are looking to recruit participants as follows:
- People with A-T and/or their siblings without A-T
- Ages 2 and up
- Living in the United States
The study requires one blood draw per year over three years.
Here’s how your family can participate:
- Share a blood sample for biomarker testing. We will send you a blood collection kit, and then we will schedule a mobile phlebotomist to come to your home at your convenience to expertly draw the blood sample.
We will provide you with updates of the latest discoveries made possible by your family’s participation.
To participate in this initiative, please fill out the brief form at https://www.atcp.org/biomarker-interest-form/.
If you have any questions, please send an email to studies@atcp.org or call 954.481.6611 and ask to speak with one of the study staff: Jennifer Thornton, Principal Investigator; Sara Reiling, Study Staff.