UAlbany, VCU to share $6.5M to Launch Muscular Dystrophy Research Center

ALBANY, N.Y. & RICHMOND, VA. (Oct. 30, 2025) — Researchers at the University at Albany and Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) have been awarded a $6.5 million P50 grant from the National Institutes of Health to establish a Wellstone Muscular Dystrophy Specialized Research Center (MDSRC). 

Named in honor of the late U.S. Sen. Paul D. Wellstone, a champion of muscular dystrophy research, the Wellstone MDSRC program was established in 2003 by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to support innovative research into muscular dystrophies.

With this award — one of just six in the nation — UAlbany and VCU will receive $6.5 million over five years to establish the center under the leadership of UAlbany’s Keith Hynes Endowed Professor in STEM Andy Berglund, director of UAlbany’s RNA Institute, and Dr. Nicholas Johnson, director of VCU’s Center for Inherited Muscle Research.

Berglund and Johnson will co-direct the Wellstone Center, which will leverage the universities’ combined expertise in the leading cause of adult-onset muscular dystrophy in the United States — myotonic dystrophy.

P50 Center grants from the NIH provide funding for multidisciplinary research focused on a specific disease or biomedical problem that integrates several interrelated research projects under a unified theme. The Wellstone P50 centers are supported by the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases, the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, and the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke.

The VCU/UAlbany Wellstone Center will share expertise and resources with the Wellstone-funded and broader muscular dystrophy research communities and will focus primarily on two research projects that will address major challenges for myotonic dystrophy. The work will be led by principal investigators from both VCU and UAlbany and will include:

Project 1, led by Johnson and VCU’s Dr. Sam Carrell, will develop clinical and biomarker outcomes to prepare the most affected population, children with myotonic dystrophy, for upcoming clinical trials.

Project 2, co-led by Berglund and Johnson, will identify genetic elements that make the disease highly variable and affect the outcome of therapeutics.

The center will also involve an:

• Administrative core to collaborate with DM patient-advocacy groups and industry partners to support the center’s work;
• Resource core to centralize access to research cell lines, samples, genomic, and phenotypic data for Wellstone investigators and the muscular dystrophy community; and
• Training core to foster the development of the next generation of researchers and clinicians who will support future research and clinical muscular dystrophy programs.

These cores will involve UAlbany’s Berglund and John D. Cleary, the RNA Institute’s assistant director of research, and VCU’s Melissa Hale and Erin DeSpain.

Hope for Patients and Families

“The RNA Institute is an exemplar of the University at Albany’s commitment to research that serves the public good. UAlbany researchers are leveraging the power of collaborations with other leading universities, like VCU, to conduct trailblazing science that improves lives,” said UAlbany President Havidán Rodríguez. 

“We can’t solve medicine’s most daunting challenges alone, but through impactful collaborations like this one with VCU, Dr. Berglund and his colleagues at the RNA Institute are advancing the development of cutting-edge diagnostics, technologies, and therapeutics. I know this important work is a source of hope to families impacted by this terrible disease,” Rodríguez said.

“CIMR is at the forefront of moving VCU into an era where genetic therapies offer unprecedented hope for patients with devastating neuromuscular diseases," said P. Srirama Rao, vice president for research and innovation at Virginia Commonwealth University. "The fundamental work by their talented faculty and staff and their ability to conduct both transdisciplinary and team science research is crucial in gathering critical data and patient outcomes to create a future where the debilitating effects of myotonic dystrophy can be mitigated."

“Our mission is to bring hope to patients and families affected by myotonic dystrophy and other muscular dystrophies” Johnson and Berglund said in a joint statement. “Through collaboration, innovative research and a patient-centered clinical approach, this Wellstone Center will help transform the future of neuromuscular research and care.”

Thursday's announcement came during UAlbany's Research & Entrepreneurship Week 2025, a five-day celebration of scholarship, scientific discovery and startup spirit.

“The RNA Institute has a deserved reputation for being one of the premier research sites for myotonic dystrophy, and the work of its scientists continues to help us understand how we can use the incredible power of RNA to treat it,” said Thenkurussi “Kesh” Kesavadas, UAlbany’s vice president for research and economic development. 

“The institute’s basic research into RNA diseases like myotonic dystrophy lays critical groundwork for the development of new therapies that will improve and extend lives. This new Wellstone Center is yet another example of the spirit of science in service of the public good that we are celebrating across campus all this week,” Kesavadas said. 

In August, Gov. Kathy Hochul announced that the RNA Institute would partner with the University of Rochester to use New York's cutting-edge Empire AI system to study and help develop treatments for mytonic dystrophy and other neurodegenerative diseases like amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig's disease, and spinocerebellar ataxias.