Michael Boland & Wayne Frankel Receive SFARI 2020 Research Grant

Michael Boland, Ph.D. and Wayne Frankel, Ph.D. from Columbia University Medical Center have received a 4-year SFARI Research grant for “Development of genetic therapies for STXBP1 haploinsufficiency”.

Michael Boland says: “Now that many ASD risk variants have been identified, an important next step is to test the efficacy of different therapeutic approaches based on these findings. My lab, together with Wayne Frankel’s at Columbia University Irving Medical Center, will use our SFARI funding to develop and test multiple genetic therapy approaches for the ability to correct phenotypes in cellular and mouse models of STXBP1 haploinsufficiency. We expect that this research will help identify a path forward to improve outcomes for individuals with these genetic changes and their families.”

Dr. Boland is a developmental and molecular neurobiologist. He is Assistant Professor in the Department of Neurology and Director of Cellular Models of Disease at the Institute for Genomic Medicine at the Columbia University Medical Center.

Michael made STXBP1 a research focus when his infant son was diagnosed with a de novo loss of function mutation in STXBP1.

Read more about The Simons Foundation Autism Research Initiative (SFARI) grant here.