WINTER SPRINGS , FLA - Dr. Frederick S. Kaplan and Dr. Eileen Shore of the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, and Stephanie Snow, IFOPA member and FOP patient, appeared on CNN's Paula Zahn Now on Thursday, April 27 at 8 p.m. EST.

The program focused both on FOP itself and on the April 23, 2006 announcement by the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, stating its researchers had discovered the “Skeleton Key,” or FOP gene, an anomaly that causes the disorder Fibrodysplasia Ossificans Progressiva, or FOP.

FOP, also known as Myositis Ossificans Progressiva, causes bone to form in muscles, tendons, ligaments and other connective tissues, ultimately creating an extra skeleton that immobilizes the joints of the human body.

To read a transcript of the show, please click here.

Note: The transcript is of the entire show, not just the segment on FOP. To read that portion, plese scroll about halfway down the page or search for the keywords "Vital Signs" on the page.

For more information on Paula Zahn Now, please visit the following site:

http://www.cnn.com/CNN/Programs/
paula.zahn.now/

Established in 1988 by FOP patient Jeannie Peeper, the IFOPA is a nonprofit support organization for families dealing FOP. The group's mission is to advance and support FOP research, education and advocacy, while giving its membership a means to help cope with the disease, both privately and publicly. Its membership currently spans 52 countries worldwide and includes FOP patients, as well as families, friends, medical professionals and more. The organization connects and shares information and ideas with its members through newsletter publications, a website and an online support newsgroup, FOPonline, among other means.

To help support the FOP research conducted at the FOP Research Program at the University of Pennsylvania , the organization holds a number of fundraising events throughout the year, like the Spencer Man Memorial Drawing, an annual fund drive and the sale of FOP Awareness Bracelets. In addition, FOP families across the globe support research effort by running barbecues, picnics, 5K runs, concerts, spaghetti dinners, garage sales, and golf outings, to name just a few.

One of the Association's primary initiatives will be its upcoming Fourth International FOP Symposium, to be held in August of 2007. The event will gather FOP-affected families and medical professionals from around the world under one roof and allow them to share stories, participate in clinics and gain insights and support into the condition. The last Symposium was held in Philadelphia in 2000.

For more information on the IFOPA and FOP, please visit http://www.ifopa.org .

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