Dr. Ziv Gan-Or
The Neuro (Montreal Neurological Institute-Hospital), McGill University · Montreal, Canada
Dr. Ziv Gan-Or is a neurogeneticist and Associate Professor of Neurology and Neurosurgery and of Human Genetics at McGill University, based at The Neuro (Montreal Neurological Institute-Hospital), where he studies the genetics of neurodegenerative disorders, including Parkinson’s disease and the hereditary spastic paraplegias. His group was among the first to identify CAPN1 as the cause of SPG76 in 2016, and he leads the international effort to build a natural history of the disease.
What he is working on
Building the first combined natural history of SPG76. His team has gathered the clinical details of published SPG76 cases from around the world into one dataset and, together with the SPG76 Research Foundation, is inviting the doctors who reported them — and others who follow people with SPG76 — to add follow-up information, such as the age when patients first needed a walking aid.
Main research goals
- Describe how SPG76 progresses over time, and whether the specific CAPN1 change affects the course — the baseline any future treatment study will need.
- Find blood markers that track the disease and could show whether a treatment is working.
- Grow nerve cells from patients’ own cells, to study SPG76 and test possible treatments in the lab.
- With partner laboratories, test gene therapy and a calpain-2–targeted approach in the SPG76 mouse model.
- The long-term aim: a treatment that slows or halts the progression of SPG76.
Research funding applied for
- Five-year research programLead applicant on a five-year program with international partners, covering the natural history, blood markers, patient-derived cell models, and testing of gene therapy and a calpain-2–targeted approach in mice.
The SPG76 Research Foundation collaborates with the researchers below — sharing information, connecting them with each other and with people affected by SPG76, and working together on research grant applications, including joint applications and letters of support.
Disclaimer: Each researcher is independent. They are not employees, officers or directors of the foundation, and they do not speak for it. Their research is their own and is carried out at their own institutions, which are independent of the foundation. Being listed here does not mean that they or their institutions endorse the foundation. Each researcher has approved what is written about them.
If you or someone in your family has SPG76, please contact the foundation rather than the researchers directly. We answer every message, keep people up to date on the research and let them know when there is a way to help. Join the patient network or email contact@spg76research.org.