December 2002

Dear Friends,

When The A-T Project was established in August 1992, benefiting Patrick became our first priority. We were determined to become active in research that might conquer the devastating genetic mystery of ataxia-telangiectasia, or at least find some way to slow its progress.

We initially feared that getting people interested in A-T research would be extremely difficult because so few knew of this rare genetic disorder. Fate and Patrick’s Aunt Judy led us to Bill Lynn, M.D. who had been researching the aging process at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston and had previously been at Duke University Medical School for 36 years. After learning more about the nature of A-T and many discussions with Dr. Lynn, we found the silver lining was that A-T is a model for studying a number of the most devastating diseases associated with aging, including cancer, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson's, diabetes and cardiovascular disease.

Research is slow and costly, but the sand in the hourglass was flowing! We realized that if the answer wasn't found in time to save Patrick, he certainly would contribute much to finding the answer for all children with A-T as well as many people with diseases of aging. Obviously we were unsuccessful in achieving our first priority. Our second priority has remained preventing other young people with A-T from suffering the way Patrick did. During the past year, great strides have been made toward our second priority and our third – preventing and/or slowing neuro-degeneration and immuno-deficiencies in the general population.

What a difference 10 years can make! Over twenty years of research by others led to the discovery of the ATm gene in the spring of 1995 by a research team at Tel Aviv University in Israel. Though it has taken a number of years for momentum to build in the scientific community, there is now wide interest in studying A-T because of its distinctive properties. This interest is nowhere more keenly directed than at Paul Wong’s laboratory at M. D. Anderson Cancer Center, Science Park-Research Division in Smithville, Texas. Dr. Wong’s lab has received the greatest portion of The A-T Project’s funding the past four years. Articles in this newsletter provide more detail about the work that is being accomplished there. We still remain optimistic the scientific world is getting closer to the answer each day.

It is awesome to ponder the many dedicated people who have been involved in bringing The A-T Project to this point and all that has been learned about ataxia-telangiectasia in the past 10 years! How do we say “thank you” to all the families, friends, researchers, supporters – in sad times and happy times – for always being there as part of the team with us? Thanks be to God for all of you and for the gift of Patrick. The memory of Patrick’s courage inspires us to continue our mission.

Blessings and Peace,
A~T Project Board of Directors
Robert Howard
Shirley Howard
Jack Howard
Judy Butler