Dr. Blair Leavitt

2007 Career Investigator Award, Scholar

Wild-type Huntingtin's pro-survival function: A potential role in Huntington's disease pathogenesis and treatment|,|

Huntington's Disease (HD) is an inherited brain disorder affecting approximately one in 10,000 Canadians. There is no cure for HD, nor are there treatments to slow it down. People with HD become progressively disabled and usually die within 15-20 years after the onset of symptoms. The children of a person with HD each have a 50 per cent risk of inheriting the disease.

The precise gene involved with HD has been known for more than 15 years. This mutant gene produces an abnormal huntingtin (htt) protein, which in turn damages brain cells. Many research groups around the world are studying how the abnormal htt protein kills cells, but there is little known about the normal cellular function of htt.

Dr. Blair Leavitt’s research is focused on studying neuronal cell death in HD and other brain disorders. He has found that normal htt plays a pro-survival function in the brain and prevents various forms of brain cell death. Mapping the pro-survival regions of normal huntingtin and investigating how this protein's function is regulated will shed light on how htt modulates brain cell death – providing new cellular therapeutic targets for HD and for neurodegenerative disorders in general.

Dr. Leavitt’s laboratory at the Centre for Molecular Medicine and Therapeutics (CMMT) is internationally-known for studies using mouse models of human neurologic disease. He is also the director of the Transgenic Facility at the CMMT. In addition to Dr. Leavitt’s basic research interests, he also has an ongoing clinical research program in neurogenetics with a focus on the hereditary movement disorders specifically clinical trials in Huntington’s disease (HD), various forms of ataxia, dystonia and chorea-form disorders.

Back to 2007 Career Investigator Awards