Manisha Balwani, MD, MS, of the Department of Human Genetics at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City, has been awarded a NORD/Roscoe Brady Lysosomal Storage Diseases Fellowship for a study titled Modifier Genes in Type I Gaucher Disease. Dr. Balwani’s mentors are Robert J. Desnick, MD, PhD, Professor and Chairman of the Department of Human Genetics at Mount Sinai, and Marie E. Grace, PhD, Associate Professor in the Department.
These fellowships provide one-year awards (with the possibility of second-year funding) of $50,000 to $70,000 for clinical studies related to lysosomal storage diseases. These are more than 50 inherited metabolic diseases characterized by the build-up of various toxic materials in the body’s cells as a result of enzyme deficiencies.
The fellowships are for young physicians who have graduated from medical school within the previous 10 years and who intend to establish careers in lysosomal storage diseases medicine. Dr. Brady, an NIH scientist and a member of NORD’s Medical Advisory Committee, is well known for having conducted breakthrough research leading to the first therapies for some lysosomal storage diseases. The NORD/Brady Fellowship Program is funded by generous contributions from the Genzyme Corporation.
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