The Oxford-Harrington Rare Disease Centre (‘OHC’), a partnership (between the University of Oxford, UK and Harrington Discovery Institute at University Hospitals, Cleveland, Ohio) aimed at driving cutting-edge rare disease breakthroughs, announced that it has received a philanthropic donation of up to £650,000 to enable the launch of two new grant award programmes to support the research and development of greatly needed therapeutics for Friedreich’s ataxia (FA): The FA Alliance Catalyst Fund and The FA Alliance Innovation Fund.
In 2021, the OHC established a dedicated programme for recruiting leading disease area experts and coordinating substantial research efforts towards developing new treatments for FA. So far, 18 leading researchers have been recruited and a pipeline of FA projects has been created. This programme is supported by the non-profit organisations EndFA, The Friedreich’s Ataxia Research Alliance (FARA), and Ataxia UK, and is collectively known as the Friedreich’s Ataxia Alliance at Oxford (FA Alliance).