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Jewish Genetic Conditions Are in Our DNA. They're Also in Our Power to Change.

SLC1A4 Deficiency is a devastating neurological disorder affecting Jewish families around the world. Roughly 1 out of 100 Ashkenazi Jews are carriers and most don't know it. Together, we can eradicate this genetic condition.

SLC1A4 family
Profound Neurological Impact
Life-limiting diagnosis
Undetected by Screening
Excluded from many genetic testing panels despite its discovery in 2015
No Available Treatments
No therapies currently exist

Advancing Science, Accelerating a Future
Without SLC1A4 Deficiency

Given its genetic characteristics, researchers believe that SLC1A4 Deficiency is a promising candidate for gene therapy. SLC1A4 Deficiency should also be added to Ashkenazi Jewish genetic testing panels to reduce its incidence, just as other Jewish genetic conditions such as Tay-Sachs Disease have been drastically reduced as a result of increased carrier screening.

How Your Donation Is Used

100%
Goes directly to research and advocacy
Laboratory & Animal Models
Building the tools needed to study and test therapies
Therapeutic Candidate Testing
Identifying and evaluating potential treatments
Clinical Trials
Moving the most promising treatments into human trials
Advocacy
Promoting inclusion on genetic testing panels
Administrative costs are covered separately — so every dollar goes to science and advocacy.

Research Funding Goals

Initial Goal
$100,000
Launch work on creating mouse models and cell lines

This first funding milestone starts work on creating the tools needed to test future therapies.

Gene Therapy Program Goal
$2,000,000
Gene therapy development

The program will progress through the gene therapy development, animal studies, toxicology, and human trials.

Program Lead
Dr. Wendy Chung, Chair of Pediatrics at Boston Children's Hospital

Donations to the SLC1A4 Initiative are collected through Boston Children's Hospital, a 501(c)(3) organization, and are tax-deductible in the United States to the extent permitted by law.