Every year, we provide an annual update to members of our community to show the course of action and initiatives we have done throughout the year. The following is our 2023 annual report.
Growing Stronger supports medical research, and develops resources for the care of individuals with achondroplasia so parents and caregivers can take this information to their own healthcare team as they embark on the life-long medical journey ahead of them.
INSPIRATION
We seek to support others in ways we wish we had received support when our son, Ahmin, was first diagnosed with achondroplasia.
VISSION
We envision a world where individuals with achondroplasia have a variety of therapeutic treatment options that reduce medical complications, pain, and lifestyle limitations,
MISSION
It is our mission to improve the quality of medical care for individuals with achondroplasia.
OUR IMPACT
KEY IMPACTS
Through 2012-2015, Growing Stronger funded the investigative research that resulted in the discovery that a deflation fragment of type X collagen is a real-time marker for bone growth velocity. In December 2017, the research was published in Science Transitional Medicine Volume 9, Issue 419. Researchers and pharmaceutical companies today use this specific marker when developing targeted therapies for treatment of achondroplasia.
Other key impacts Growing Stronger has had part in include:
Identifying a new type of skeletal dysplasia due to a COL10A1 variant – discovering individuals with two mutated copies of COL10A1, exhibiting extreme short stature and lower limb deformities.
Survey of C-type Natriuretic Peptide Levels in People with Skeletal Dysplasia – Growing Stronger supported world-renowned geneticist and skeletal dysplasia expert, Dr. Michael Bober in this observational study to determine whether those with skeletal dysplasia exhibit evidence of CNP resistance as reflected by increases in plasma CNP and its amino-terminal propeptide (NTproCNP).
