Columns

My wife, Jill, and I recently celebrated 15 years of marriage. When we said “I do” all those years ago, I couldn’t have guessed what would eventually happen to her: She is being robbed of her words. Or, as she puts it, words are “escaping” her. Jill will be…

My wife, Jill, has always been stubborn, to put it lightly. She won’t admit that something is too hard for her. Ever. “No, I got it” is her favorite saying. But since she was diagnosed with Huntington’s disease in 2018, I haven’t been sure if stubbornness is…

The other day, a lightbulb went off when I thought about the things that Huntington’s disease might rob from me. I’m married to someone who was diagnosed with Huntington’s in 2018, and I often focus on what the disease will steal from her (or us). But I hadn’t…

When young, healthy progenitors of neuron-supporting cells called glia are transplanted into the adult brain, they can grow and replace diseased glial cells, including those carrying a Huntington’s disease-causing mutation, a study in mice reports. “These findings have strong therapeutic implications, as they suggest that in the adult human…

What do you say — in under a minute! — to someone about a rare disease? How do you convey the needs of people with Huntington’s disease (HD), knowing how terrible it is because you’ve spent years watching what it does to people you love? How can you explain…

Huntington’s disease could develop at earlier ages in people using calcium channel blockers to control hypertension, a study that looked into genes encoding targets of blood pressure-lowering medications reported. Findings may have important implications for managing high blood pressure in people at risk of Huntington’s, identified before disease…

I love the random questions my wife, Jill, asks me. One such query recently led to a deep and productive conversation. Jill asked me if I thought that anyone could become a good writer. I knew there was a story behind the question, so I asked if she’d share…

It was 6 a.m., time for me to leave for work. I got into my car, pressed down on the brake, and hit the start button. The engine sputtered and then made no sound. Uh-oh. I repeated the steps, but again, there was no comforting “vroom” sound of the engine…

PTC Therapeutics’ Huntington’s disease treatment candidate PTC518 is well-tolerated and lowers blood levels of the huntingtin protein (HTT) in people with the neurodegenerative disorder. That’s according to interim three-month data from the Phase 2a PIVOT-HD trial (NCT05358717), which found that use of the investigational oral therapy did not…

How could a musical lead to tears and a conversation about my wife’s Huntington’s disease (HD)? That was my thought as Jill and I recently walked out of the National Theatre in Washington, D.C., after seeing a former Broadway musical called “Jagged Little Pill,” which was inspired…