Redenlab has entered into a 5 year collaboration with investigators from North and South America, Australia and Europe to investigate the underlying neural mechanisms of Friedreich ataxia. The study is supported by the Friedreich’s Ataxia Research Alliance (FARA) and pharmaceutical industry partners.
Redenlab are providing speech testing and analytics for the study.
Friedreich ataxia is a multisystem neurodegenerative disorder and the most common of the hereditary ataxia syndromes. It is caused by a triplet repeat expansion in the FXN gene, which leads to reduced frataxin, a mitochondrial protein important for iron metabolism. Symptoms typically present at 10-15 years of age but can be earlier or considerably later, and patients are usually wheelchair dependent within 10–15 years of disease onset. Other deficits include dysarthria and dysphagia, progressive limb and gait ataxia, optic and auditory neuropathy, scoliosis, and cardiomyopathy.
