The European Union has granted six million euros to a group researching a rare muscle disease

The group is headed by Professor Sonia Beri-Ekanin from the Faculty of Medicine at the Technion

The European Union has granted six million euros to a group researching the rare muscle disease MG (Myasthenia Gravis). The international group is headed by Dr. Sonia Berry-Ekanin from the Rappaport Faculty of Medicine at the Technion and the French Institute of Health Inserm (INSERM). The group includes Professor Ariel Miller, an expert in multiple sclerosis and neuroimmunological diseases from the Faculty of Medicine at the Technion and the Carmel Medical Center, Professor Thelma Brenner from Hadassah, Professor Miri Sorojon from the Open University, Professor Sarah Fox from the Weizmann Institute and researchers from Greece, Germany, Switzerland, France, Italy and Norway.

MG is an autoimmune disease that affects the neuromuscular junction and causes severe muscle weakness. The molecular phenomena that cause the disease are still unknown, and current treatments do not lead to a cure, while at the same time entailing side effects that necessitate the development of new treatments. In Israel there are about 600 patients with the disease and in the world there are ten patients for every 100 thousand people. MG manifests itself in extreme fatigue, to the point of dysfunction.

The group's multidisciplinary project connects researchers in basic science with clinical neurologists and prioritizes a translational approach to improve the treatment of the disease.

The researchers deal with the natural course of the disease - determining factors related to the outbreak of the disease and influencing its development; the quality of life of patients in subgroups of the disease, including children, twins, women and the elderly; Etiology of the disease - identification of genetic, epigenetic and environmental risk factors and investigation of key molecules related to the outbreak of the disease; Pathogenic mechanism of the neuromuscular junction; Examining new ways of diagnosis and monitoring; New ways of healing - for example, cell-based treatments, designed to regulate the autoimmune response using T cells or stem cells in transgenic mice.

"We want to understand the root of the disease and along the way hope to find a cure for it," says Professor Berry-Ekanin. "It is possible that our work will serve as a model for the study of other autoimmune diseases."

Professor Sonia Berry-Ekanin works at the Technion as part of a cooperation agreement signed with the French Institute of Health in the field of embryonic stem cell research, initiated by Professor Yosef Itzkovitch from the Technion Faculty of Medicine and Professor Daniel Aberdam from Inserm.