About the Research Center

When ataxia began to erode the impressive physical skills that had made Bob Allison such a talented and graceful athlete, he sought help at the University of Minnesota Medical School's Department of Neurology. In 1989, this degenerative brain disease was poorly understood.

In an effort to find some answers, the Bob Allison Ataxia Research Center at the University of Minnesota was founded to develop a comprehensive program to deal with the ataxias. A group of University of Minnesota scientists, spanning many disciplines, began investigating the normal and diseased cerebellum.

Today at the University of Minnesota we know much more about specific forms of hereditary ataxia. We know that abnormal proteins in the nerve cells interfere with the cerebellum's job to coordinate voluntary movement. Our researchers are still hard at work trying to find potential treatments and an eventual cure.

Early Research Money Invested Wisely

During the past 10 years, the Bob Allison Ataxia Research Center (BAARC) allocated a total of $250,000 in start-up monies to help University of Minnesota researchers in their exploratory studies of ataxia. This initial seed money was leveraged to secure basic science projects and clinical research grants of more than $5.2 million from the National Institutes of Health.