GMP Facility

OSU/Nationwide Children's Muscle Group


The mission of the Center for Gene Therapy is to investigate and employ the use of gene and cell based therapeutics for prevention and treatment of human diseases including: neuromuscular and neurodegenerative diseases, lysosomal storage disorders, ischemia and re-perfusion injury, neonatal hypertension, cancer and infectious diseases.

Learn about our areas of focus and featured research.

Nationwide Children’s and OSU Unite to Target Muscle Regeneration in Degenerative Diseases

In total, 24 labs are working to improve approaches to treat muscle injury and disease. Read about how their collaborations are changing the way we treat neuromuscular diseases.

Listen Now: Podcasts Dedicated to the Latest Neuromuscular Research

Hosted by Kevin Flanigan, MD, "This Month in Muscular Dystrophy" podcasts highlight the latest in muscular dystrophy and other inherited neuromuscular disease research.  During each podcast, authors of recent publications discuss how their work improves our understanding of inherited neuromuscular diseases, and what their work might mean for treatment of these diseases.

Gene Therapy News

Study Examines Gentamicin Treatment of DMD

A recent Center for Gene Therapy study appearing in the Annals of Neurology discusses the therapeutic concept of mutation suppression, even though clear clinical efficacy was not achieved.
Read the study: Gentamicin treatment of DMD

New Gene Therapy Study Reverses Effects of Lethal Childhood Muscle Disorder in Mice

Reversing a protein deficiency through gene therapy can correct motor function, restore nerve signals and improve survival in mice that serve as a model for the lethal childhood disorder spinal muscular atrophy, new research shows.
Read more about: New Gene Therapy Study Reverses Effects of Lethal Childhood Muscle Disorder in Mice.

Investigators Identify Gene Mutations that Predispose Patients with Becker Muscular Dystrophy to Early Onset Cardiomyopathy

Investigators in The Research Institute at Nationwide Children’s Hospital have identified a link between specific modifications of the dystrophin gene and the age of cardiac disease onset in patients with Becker muscular dystrophy.
Read more about the gene mutation that predisposes patients with BMD to early onset cardiomyopathy

Cancer/Gene Therapy Study Ranked as Top 10 Key Research in 2009

A study conducted by Jerry Mendell, MD, Janiah Kota, PhD, and colleagues in the Center for Gene Therapy at The Research Institute at Nationwide Children’s Hospital, in collaboration with Johns Hopkins University, has been designated as one of Nature Medicine’s top 10 key papers published in 2009.  Nature Medicine is a premier journal for biomedical research.

The paper details a promising new cancer-stopping therapy.  The researchers discovered that delivering microRNAs, small molecules that are highly expressed in normal tissues but lost in diseased cells, can result in tumor suppression.

Read more about the promising new cancer-stopping therapy

Mendell Designated 2009 University Distinguished Scholar

Jerry R. Mendell, MD, has received the 2009 University Distinguished Scholar Award from the Department of Research at The Ohio State University.

The Distinguished Scholar Award, established in 1978, recognizes exceptional scholarly accomplishments by senior professors who have compiled a substantial body of research.  Distinguished Scholars receive a $3,000 honorarium and a research grant of $20,000 to be used over the next three years.

FSH Society Fellowship Funds Facioscapulohumeral Muscular Dystrophy Research

Utilizing this one-year, $40,000 fellowship grant, Dr. Harper and his team will investigate the role of the DUX4 gene in FSHD pathogenesis. Read more :: FSH Society Fellowship Funds Facioscapulohumeral Muscular Dystrophy Research >>