Valencia’s Serb Doctor Wins Canadian Grant

Valencian based Doctor Slaven Erceg who works at the Fundación Centro de Investigación Príncipe Felipe (CIPF), where he is Head of Stem Cell Therapies in Neurodegenerative Diseases, has won a grant of 100,000 dollars for his work on the treatment of ataxia.

The grant comes from the Charlevoix-Saguenay Foundation, based in Montreal, Canada, created in 2006 by Jean Groleau and Sonia Gobeil, whose children suffered from this illness.

Dr. Erceg, who is Serbian and a graduate of Belgrade University, has worked for many years on cell therapy involving human embryonic stem cells and induced pluripotent stem cells as a therapeutic tool for treatment of neurodegenerative diseases.

Ataxia causes lack of voluntary coordination of muscle movements and dysfunction of the parts of the nervous system that coordinate movement.

Doctor Erceg’s Project is titled “Cerebellar cells derived from induced pluripotent stem cells in 3D culture generated from ARSACS patients as faithful disease model”, and is designed to elaborate new treatments and medicines to deal with ataxia.