SAN FRANCISCO – November 20, 2017 – Taube Philanthropies, one of the Bay Area's foremost charitable organizations, has granted $750,000 to the Buck Institute for Research on Aging to support work performed by Dr. Lisa Ellerby in collaboration with the Taube Neurodegenerative Disease Stem Cell Initiative – a research consortium that is working on Huntington's disease.
Dr. Lisa Ellerby
Dr. Ellerby, who has been conducting research at the Buck Institute since 2000, is an expert on cell death in neurodegenerative disorders. In addition to Huntington's disease, these disorders include Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS, also called Lou Gehrig's disease).
Dr. Ellerby has generated stem models of Huntington's disease and used these to identify potential new therapies. She is working with other members of the Taube NDSCI to generate new stem cell models, test drug candidates and use single-cell analysis to understand the pathogenesis of the disease.
"My goal is to develop therapeutics for Huntington's disease," said Dr. Ellerby. "This generous grant will go far in propelling our team toward that goal. All four investigators on the team are generating additional stem cell models and evaluating new small molecules for use in treating the disease."
Tad Taube, the founder and chairman of Taube Philanthropies, has taken a keen interest in Huntington's disease, and has supported several pertinent research projects. "It is immeasurably gratifying to be in a position to help unravel the mysteries of this terrible disease," said Taube, who underwrote the research consortium and has supported research for Huntington's disease and other neurodegenerative diseases for more than a decade. "I hope that Dr. Ellerby's unique contributions to our research consortium will further advance these efforts to find effective therapies for people who suffer from Huntington's"
About Taube Philanthropies
For more than 30 years, Taube Philanthropies has been a leader in supporting diverse educational, cultural, community, and youth organizations in the San Francisco Bay Area, Poland and Israel. Founded by businessman and philanthropist Tad Taube in 1981, and now led by Tad and his wife Dianne Taube, the organization works to ensure that free citizens have the freedom and opportunity for advancement of their goals and dreams. For more information, visit www.taubephilanthropies.org.
About the Buck Institute for Research on Aging
The Buck Institute, located in Novato, California, is focused on one of the most crucial biomedical challenges of our time – how to alter the aging process in order to prevent, delay or cure the chronic diseases that afflict almost everyone as they grow older. Aging without illness is Buck's overarching goal. Buck's faculty, noted for groundbreaking research, is exploring several key aging processes: how nutrition and exercise affect aging, how to enhance stem cell function for rejuvenation, how genes and small molecules can prolong lifespan, and how aging predisposes people to Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and other chronic diseases.
