In Pursuit of a Cure

The IFOPA has been funding FOP research since 1990. In 2020, we celebrate 30 years of funding research at the University of Pennsylvania! It’s the dedication and generosity of our amazing FOP community that allows us to expand the research we fund in search of treatments and a cure.

In 2020, the IFOPA launched the In Pursuit of a Cure Campaign to fund new ACT for FOP drug development grants and the IFOPA’s first-ever targeted research grant in gene therapy.

Gene therapy doesn’t replace drug development or current and future clinical trials. But if successful, gene therapy has the potential to cure FOP. We can search for treatments and a cure together!

Learn more about what gene therapy is and its potential in the search for a cure for FOP.

Gene therapy is an approach to treating diseases that seeks to modify or introduce genes into a patient's body. Genes are the “blueprint” for how your body functions. People with FOP have a difference in their genes that causes excess bone to grow. Gene therapy may be a way to correct that difference.

The IFOPA’s first-ever gene therapy research grant has been awarded to Jae-Hyuck Shim, PhD, Associate Professor, Department of Medicine/Division of Rheumatology Immunology and Microbiology Program at the University of Massachusetts Medical School and to Guangping Gao, PhD, Professor of Microbiology and Physiological Systems at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. Dr. Gao is also the Past President of the American Society of Gene & Cell Therapy and Director of the Horae Gene Therapy Center at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. A consortium of gene therapy experts and FOP specialists will collaborate to help guide this FOP gene therapy research.

A consortium of gene therapy experts and FOP specialists will collaborate to help guide this FOP gene therapy research.

Consortium members include Drs. Guangping Gao, Jae-Hyuck Shim (Lead Investigator), Jun Xie, Yeon-Suk Yang, Jungming Kim and Oksun Lee of the University of Massachusetts; Drs. Fred Kaplan and Eileen Shore of the University of Pennsylvania; Dr. Jeffrey Chamberlain of the University of Washington; Dr. David Goldhamer of the University of Connecticut; Dr. Benjamin Levi of the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center; and Dr. Paul Yu of Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital.