ATLANTA (August 14, 2023) CMT Research Foundation (CMTRF), a patient-led, non-profit focused on delivering treatments and cures for Charcot-Marie-Tooth (CMT) disease*, today announced that Dr. W. David (Dave) Arnold has joined the Foundation’s Scientific Advisory Board (SAB).

The SAB is a distinguished group of professionals with various expertise in CMT that convenes to consider the scientific merits of each research proposal being considered by CMTRF and to define the milestones and expectations of the project. In less than five years CMTRF has become the most significant force in the CMT research arena, funding 19 projects that have all advanced the mission of finding a treatment or cure. SAB-mandated investments have produced five clinical candidates – with one heading for clinical trials in the next year – a remarkable success story.

Since the Fall of 2022, Dr. Arnold has directed the NextGen Precision Health Initiative at the University of Missouri. NextGen Precision Health represents the largest research investment in the history of the University of Missouri system that aims to accelerate translational research discoveries to improve health outcomes. From 2009 to 2022, Dr. Arnold was on the faculty of The Ohio State University where he was a tenured full professor. As part of a multidisciplinary team at the Ohio State University and Nationwide Children’s Hospital, he was involved in the preclinical development and then the first-in-human gene therapy study for spinal muscular atrophy, a disorder that previously represented the most common genetic cause of death in infants. This life-saving treatment is now used internationally for spinal muscular atrophy (SMA).

Dr. Arnold was one of the first physiatrists in the country with accredited subspecialty training and board-certification in neuromuscular medicine. His preclinical and clinical research program is primarily focused on translational neuromuscular physiology in the context of health, aging, and disease and investigating the biology of aging as a unifying risk factor across diseases. Dr. Arnold’s clinical work is focused on genetic and acquired neuromuscular disorders.

Dr. Arnold holds a BS in Biology from Cumberland College and received his MD at the University of Louisville School of Medicine.

“Dave Arnold is exactly the kind of expert that typifies CMTRF’s SAB,” says Edritz Javelosa, CMTRF’s Chief Scientific Officer. “His experience with finding a treatment for SMA will be invaluable in helping the Board decide which proposals will lead most directly to clinical candidates for CMT.”

CMT Research Foundation (CMTRF) is a patient-led, non-profit focused on delivering treatments and cures for CMT. The foundation identifies significant obstacles or deficiencies impeding progress towards a cure and seeks out collaborators to address these issues. It’s their mission to raise funds to invest in promising science with high potential of leading to treatments and cures. Founded by two patients who are driven to expedite drug delivery to people who live with CMT, the 501(c)(3) federal tax-exempt organization is supported by personal and corporate financial gifts.

 *Charcot-Marie-Tooth encompasses a group of inherited, chronic peripheral neuropathies that result in nerve degradation. CMT patients suffer from progressive muscle atrophy of legs and arms, causing walking, running and balance problems as well as abnormal functioning of hands and feet. CMT affects one in 2,500 people (about the same prevalence as cystic fibrosis), including 150,000 Americans and nearly 3 million people worldwide. At the moment, there is no treatment or cure for CMT. 

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