Eight university research teams are set to receive financial backing from the Alphonse and Jean Forton Fund and Muco Association for cystic fibrosis research, the King Baudouin Foundation has said.
They will examine the molecular processes underlying the genetic disease and how patients' serious complications develop and can be treated. The Forton Fund, managed by the Foundation, together with the Muco Association, are jointly allocating €1.5 million, the King Baudouin Foundation details.
Special attention will be paid to the impact of new CFTR modulators, medications that alter the disease, as well as future innovations such as phage therapy and genetic therapies.
Cystic fibrosis, Belgium's rarest genetic condition, has roughly 1,400 known patients. Approximately one child with the disease is born every ten days in the country, according to the Foundation.
Patients with cystic fibrosis suffer from recurring respiratory infections that permanently reduce their lung capacity, abdominal pain during digestion, and often from liver disease, diabetes or reduced fertility.
The disease currently remains incurable and any damage previously inflicted by the disease on various organs is irreversible, according to a statement from the Foundation.
Two of the studies focus on the behaviour of bacteria in the lungs of those with cystic fibrosis to identify new ways to counter them. Other projects focus on how to optimise CFTR modulators or develop a treatment for those who cannot use them, while others will investigate changes in the immune system among people with the disease.
