PARTNERSHIP WITH OHSU

Isabel's Chance is proud to announce a partnership with Oregon Health and Science University (OHSU) in Portland, Oregon. Under the guidance of Dr. Susan Hayflick, the Chair of the Department of Molecular & Medical Genetics, and her team of doctors, researchers and geneticists, OHSU is using the proceeds of grants made by Isabel's Chance to directly fund BPAN research.

These grants are made up of your charitable donations and thousands of dollars are already at work in the Hayflick Laboratory on BPAN cell line study. OHSU has committed to using these funds to create a large repository of biosamples made up of BPAN cells and healthy control cells. This is a critical research tool, not only for OHSU's work, but as a resource for the larger BPAN scientific community. Samples from cell lines created in part through support from Isabel's Chance are already being reviewed and requested by scientists overseas in countries that include the Netherlands. Charitable giving to Isabel's Chance helps ensure that brilliant and dedicated minds not just at OHSU but across the small but mighty BPAN scientific sector have access to this invaluable resource for their work, helping accelerate BPAN investigation in a way that can one day lead to therapeutics and even a cure.

Dr. Hayflick joined the faculty of OHSU in 1993. Her team was responsible for discovering not just the WDR45 gene linked to BPAN, but genes linked to two other neurodegeneration with brain iron accumulation (NBIA) disorders impacting children. Dr. Hayflick is a preeminent expert in the field of BPAN and other NBIA disorders. She is a clinical, biochemical and molecular geneticist who sees patients and consults on NBIA cases world-wide, as well as a frequent guest speaker and lecturer at NBIA conferences.