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The donation from the Border Terrier Club of America's Donor Advised Fund to Dr. Gary Johnson's Canine Health Foundation Grant # 762, will be used to fund CECS research
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Dr. Johnson's grant proposal has been in the works for about 2 years, and originally included CECS. Reviewer comments led to revisions and resubmission, and the CECS research was not mentioned in the final proposal. When Dr. Johnson saw that the BTCA was funding this grant through our Donor Advised Fund, he requested permission to use these funds towards CECS research, and the Canine Health Foundation agreed.
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Dr. Dennis O'Brien, one of the board certified veterinary neurologists at the University of Missouri, will be selecting Border Terrier samples from their DNA bank. Final criteria will take into account the nature, age at onset, frequency, and duration of the episodes. Samples of affected dogs and their close relatives will be sent to Dr. Hannes Lohi in Finland. These samples, along with well characterized samples from Finland and elsewhere in Europe, will undergo genome wide scans to see if common regions are found in all affected samples and in some of their close relatives, and not in any control samples. The preliminary genome scans are being done in Europe as they have access to samples from dogs which have had electroencephalograms performed during an episode, as well as full metabolic screens. The advantage of this program is that a greater number of samples will be used for the preliminary analysis.
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One of the problems with earlier scans may be the lack of a definitive test for CECS and the subsequent failure to select samples meeting specific criteria.
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Once the preliminary regions of interest are identified in genome wide scans, individual laboratories, including Dr. Johnson's laboratory, will concentration on looking for specific genes within those regions. The hope is to find the actual gene or genes that causes CECS. In addition, genes that modify the expression of the disorder may be found.
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The Border Terrier Club of America is pleased that our funding of Dr. Johnson's research will be applied to CECS.
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