This Million Dollar Bike Ride Pilot Grant was made possible by our 2021 riders, including: Dr. Ed Hsiao and his son Ian Hsiao; Dr. Danielle Kerkovich, the IFOPA's Research Director; Renata Kutrzuba; John Roys; Brendan Scott; Brianna Tanner; Dr. Pamela Yelick; and Andy Rankin and Amanda Seeff-Charny with Regeneron Pharmaceuticals. We are also grateful for a generous $30,000 match from the Penn Medicine Orphan Disease Center.

2021 Grant Awardees

Influence of Microbiota on Innate Immune Responses and Heterotopic Ossification in FOP

Novel, Point of Care Biomarker to Detect Pre-clinical Flares for People Living with Fibrodysplasia Ossificans Progressiva (FOP)
Principal Investigator: Nezihi Murat Karabacak
Institution: Mass General Brigham, Center for Engineering in Medicine and Surgery
Country: United States
Award Amount: $64,000

Project Description: Using biomedical engineering (the construction of a microchip-based device for capturing circulating rare cells), Dr. Karabacak and his colleagues will isolate cells capable of forming bone from the blood of those with FOP and compare their contents with cells from the blood of individuals without FOP. The overall goal of the project is to find circulating cells (biomarkers) that predict when someone with FOP is at risk for – or about to have – a flare-up.