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Article published Tuesday, March 8, 2005
UT chemist given grant for
research
By JENNI LAIDMAN, TOLEDO
BLADE SCIENCE WRITER
The baby brain in
the picture was so distorted, it stopped Ronald Viola cold, drawing him into
an article about why this brain went so wrong.
As the biochemist read, he realized he
might be in a position to help. Today, you might say it was a picture worth
$1 million.
The University
of Toledo
researcher was recently awarded $1.1 million five-year grant by the
National Institutes of Health to study Canavan disease, the rare disease
that hurt the infant brain in the magazine photo
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Canavan disease is so rare, it gets
little attention from the research community. An estimated 500 children
in the United States
have the disease, according to the Canavan Foundation. The malady arises
from a defect in a gene that makes an enzyme called aspartoacylase. And
therein lies the problem. No one knows much about this enzyme. They can't
draw a picture of it. They can't say how it operates, or just why it
fails to do its job in children with Canavan.
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Viola
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But Dr. Viola is an enzyme
specialist. His laboratory is dedicated to solving their mysteries.
After his magazine revelation, Dr.
Viola got right to work, first obtaining a copy of the Canavan-associated
gene from another laboratory. During the next two years, his lab figured
out how to get the gene into yeast so that it could begin making its
enzyme. With the enzyme now available through these yeast cultures, Dr.
Viola and his team can finally begin studying it.
When the enzyme is
working properly, it helps break down a protein in the brain called
N-acetylaspartate or NAA. In Canavan kids, the enzyme is incapable of
breaking down NAA. NAA rapidly accumulates, leading to progressive brain
damage. Canavan children have a lifespan of 3 to 10 years.
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