The Minnesota connection
Ataxia research in Minnesota began in the 1950s when John Schut, M.D., a local neurologist, started investigating its genetic causes. He had personal reasons for his work: His Dutch ancestors had a history of ataxia, and to date at least 65 members of the Schut family have succumbed to the disease. John Schut founded the National Ataxia Foundation with his brother Henry in 1957. When John himself died from complications of ataxia, his nephew Larry Schut, M.D., a neuro-logist at the CentraCare Clinic in St. Cloud, carried on the family work.
Larry Schut eventually joined forces with Harry Orr, Ph.D., a professor of laboratory medicine and pathology at the Institute of Human Genetics. It was there, in 1993, that researchers identified SCA1, the first genetic defect known to cause ataxia.
Ataxia is easily ignored by those not directly affected. A direct Lincoln connection would help strengthen efforts to understand and ultimately control this disease.– John Day, M.D., Ph.D.
In 1983 the beloved Minnesota Twins left-fielder Bob Allison was diagnosed with nonhereditary ataxia. Determined to make a difference for others with ataxia, Allison and his family established the Bob Allison Ataxia Research Center in 1990 to raise vital funds for University researchers. Five years later, the disease ended Allison's life. But over the years, his legacy has helped the region — and particularly the University — grow into a world center of ataxia research.
Ranum, now a professor of genetics, cell biology, and development in the Institute of Human Genetics, has long focused on defining the genetic causes of neurological disease. Previously, as a postdoctoral fellow in Orr's lab, she took part in the 1993 discovery of the SCA1 mutation. More recently, Ranum's own group has discovered the genes for several other ataxias and neuro-degenerative disorders.
"Finding the genes that cause ataxia provides an immediate benefit for those who want to know if they will develop the disease or pass on the gene to their children," she says, "but our long-term goal is to find a cure."