The Structural Genomics Consortium (SGC) is pleased to announce that Dr. Rachel Harding, Principal Investigator at SGC-Toronto, has been awarded a Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) Fall 2024 Project Grant for her research project, "Macrocyclic Peptides to Uncover Huntington Disease Biology." 

The CIHR Project Grant program is Canada’s leading funding competition for health research. Its purpose is to support ideas that have the potential to significantly advance our understanding of fundamental or applied health knowledge, health research, health care, health systems, and health outcomes. In the Fall 2024 cycle, a total of 453 projects were funded across Canada, representing an investment of $411 million in biomedical research. Among these, Dr. Harding received $963,900 to advance the development of novel chemical tools for studying the huntingtin protein, which will enhance our understanding of Huntington's disease (HD) at the molecular level.

HD is caused by an expanded CAG repeat in the Huntingtin gene, leading to progressive cognitive, psychiatric, and motor impairments. With no disease-modifying treatments available, new research strategies are urgently needed. Dr. Harding’s project leverages cutting-edge binder discovery platforms in collaboration with researchers in Tokyo to develop molecules that selectively bind to huntingtin. These chemical tools will enable new insights into huntingtin function, its distribution in cells, and its interactions with other proteins. This work has the potential to transform HD research and contribute to new therapeutic strategies.

Congratulations to Dr. Harding and her team at SGC-Toronto on this significant achievement!

Read more about the CIHR Project Grant competition: https://cihr-irsc.gc.ca/e/49051.html