RESEARCH UPDATE – Tamara Hershey, PhD

Washington University School of Medicine

Dear Wolfram Community,

As we prepare for the research clinic and the community conference with the Snow Foundation, a few other things have been going on that we want you to know about!

First, we have published a paper that describes how the size of brain regions change over time in Wolfram syndrome. This paper is based on the brain imaging that we have done over the last 8 years in the Wolfram research clinic. You can find the paper online here: Evidence for altered neurodevelopment and neurodegeneration in Wolfram syndrome using longitudinal morphometry. The findings have important implications for current and future clinical trials for treating Wolfram syndrome neurodegeneration.

Second, we have continued to interact with other groups that are working on current and future clinical trials, both here in the US, the UK and Belgium.

Finally, we have been working with investigators in Estonia on their mouse model for Wolfram syndrome to determine whether they display similar changes in the brain to people with Wolfram syndrome. If this mouse model is similar in its brain features, we then would be able to do more specific brain studies that might suggest brain-specific treatments.

If you have any questions about any of these research projects, please let me know! I am always happy to talk to you.

Sincerely,

Tamara Hershey, PhD

Professor Scientific Director and Principal Investigator WU Wolfram Research Clinic tammy@wustl.edu