Last year Meghann Harris ran her first marathon to raise funds to support Rett syndrome research at The Jackson Laboratory—research that could help her daughter, Eliza, who has a rare form of the disorder.  This year, scientists and friends at The Jackson Laboratory continued the Run for Eliza to raise additional funds to further the research that Meghann helped start.

Rett syndrome is an autism-spectrum disorder that affects almost exclusively girls, who typically develop normally for the first 6-18 months but then lose speech and motor skills. They may develop autistic behaviors, cognitive deficits, seizures, cardiac and respiratory problems, and other health issues.

Using the funds raised from last year’s Run for Eliza, Cathy Lutz, Ph.D., a Jackson Laboratory research scientist and director of the Genetic Resource Science repository, is creating a mouse model with the same mutation that Eliza carries, to better understand Rett syndrome in general and Eliza’s variation in particular. The Jackson Laboratory team has successfully duplicated Eliza’s mutation in a mouse gene and is now working to insert this new gene into a mouse. Then, Dr. Lutz says, “We’ll be able to evaluate these mice for autistic behaviors and start to look for possible interventions to lessen the severity of Rett syndrome.”  This year’s Run for Eliza supported this important second phase of the project.

Beyond her work in the lab, Dr. Lutz led this year’s Run for Eliza by running the full 26.2 miles for Meghann and Eliza.  She was joined by other Jackson Laboratory employees running the Mount Desert Island Marathon as a relay on October 14 as a benefit for Rett syndrome research.

Please use our secure online form to support the Run for Eliza and Rett syndrome. Donate online

Visit the Run for Eliza Facebook page.

Thank you to those who have supported the second annual Run for Eliza! (List is as of February 28, 2013)

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