Congratulations to Jeffrey R. Millman, PhD, on receiving a $375,000 Rosenau Family Research Foundation grant for her research project titled “Reducing psychosine in Krabbe disease by immunomodulation with Anakinra”!
With this grant, her team will explore the effects of the drug Anakinra in slowing disease progression as it targets inflammation and thus, it might reduce the accumulation of psychosine in cells. The study aims to measure whether Anakinra alone or in conjunction with bone marrow transplantation may mitigate Krabbe disease, the latter of which has been proven to be a standard treatment for the infantile form of the disease. Relying on twitcher mice, which replicate most hallmarks of the human disease, the team expects that Anakinra will be able to reduce the build-up of psychosine. Investigators hope this research will clear the way for Anakinra to be used as a co-adjuvant in the treatment of infants with Krabbe disease.