Now
gradually drill this number down
to a shorter list of promising
biomarker candidates ready for
validation testing,” he said. Dr.
Schutzer is working on this exciting project with leading scientists
at Pacific Northwest National
Laboratory who developed these
proteomic techniques, as well
as MS expert Patricia K. Coyle,
MD (Stony Brook University,
NY). This project is named the
Admiral Thor Hanson Biomarkers in MS Project, in memory of
a former CEO of the Society.
Biomarkers in kids with MS
Lauren Krupp, MD (
SUNY-Stony Brook, NY) is renowned
internationally for her work
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with children and adolescents
who have MS, and heads one of
the six Pediatric Network Centers of Excellence established
with funding from the Society’s
Promise:2010 campaign. Now she
is conducting an extensive society-funded search for biomarkers in
blood plasma in this population.
“A simple blood test that
provides a rapid diagnosis would
be a major advance in managing
MS in children, especially if it
made lumbar puncture unneces-
sary, because this often requires
anesthesia in children,” said Dr.
Krupp. Her team also is using
novel proteomics techniques to
examine blood samples from 40
children with MS, 30 children
with other neurologic diseases,
and 30 healthy controls.
