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MOG Awareness Month is April 2022!

VW Bus that says The MOG Project Presents MOG Awareness Month: Groovy Baby: 60's style decor

We are so excited to offer our community of tenacious hummingbird warriors their very own. month!

This April, in partnership with The Siegel Rare Neuroimmune Association (SRNA), The Sumaira Foundation, The Guthy-Jackson Charitable Foundation and MyMyelitis, The MOG Project will celebrate the first-ever MOG Awareness Month, meant to bring awareness to and encourage people to get tested for MOG-AD.

We have some great events planned so make sure you keep connected to us on our social media and YouTube Channel, which you can find on our Connect page.

MOG Awareness Month Events

A brand new MOGCast!

MOG-AD: Diagnosis, Management and Outcomes. April 13, 2022 at 10AM AEST. MOG Project Logo and Hummingbird speaking into a microphone.

Join us on Wednesday, April 13th, 2022 at 10AM AEDT (That’s April 12th at 7PM EDT for those in the eastern US) for another in our MOGCast series!

This MOGCast, stars the Australian Dream Team from our Medical Advisory Board, Dr. Darshi Ramanathan, Dr. Russel Dale and Dr. Fabienne Brilot-Turville.  Co-moderated by our own Australian Ambassador, Jenny Khazen and Executive Director Julia Lefelar, we take a deep dive into MOG-AD Diagnosis, Management and Outcomes using the insight of these dedicated researchers.

We have created a public Facebook Event which all can access and Facebook users can participate in to ask questions during MOGCast.  Access the Facebook Event here.

Special Support Group Guest Appearance by Dr. May Han!

MOG Sloggers: Finding our way together wings of hope

Dr. May Han will be coming to a special “MOG Sloggers, FInding our Way Together” Support Group on Saturday, April 23rd at 10am PST. All are welcome to join. You must register for this private event, so visit our Support Group page here.

GReat Videos

Coming soon to our YouTube Channel so stay tuned!

Social Media Activities and Ways to Spread Awareness

Do you follow us on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter?  We have several things you can do to spread awareness:

  1. Join our Rock Your Shades Challenge and show your support for MOG-AD by posting a picture of you in your most awesome shades.  Find more details on our “Rock your Shades” Event Page.
Rock Your Shades: Hummingbird wearing glasses over a colorful background

 

2. Add our MOG Awareness Frame to your profile picture!  You can add it yourself using your own photo editing tool or send us your picture to info@mogproject.org and we will do it for you!  Get the frame image here!.

MOG Awareness Month circular Frame: April Is MOG Awareness Month on outer Teal Ring. Inner Ruby Rose Ring: determination, resilience, strength, couragem hope adaptability; hummingbird on the bottom of the circle

3. Put up flyers around your local coffee shop, hospital, doctors office, gym or anywhere where flyers are permitted to spread awareness to your community!

Get the Flyer Here

4. Check out our community pictures on Instagram and Facebook and see how members of our community live their lives the best way they can despite a rare disease diagnosis of MOG-AD!  We will post one every day and add them to this page below for all to see starting April 2nd!

5. Don’t forget to follow us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter for posts of our great resources, stories and more from our partners.  We’ve got a FULL MONTH OF MOG!

Lighting up Niagra Falls!

Image of Niagra Falls with swirly pink border, 60s groovy font that reads Light up the Falls for MOG Awareness

On behalf of the Niagara Falls Illumination Board, we are honored to be accepted as an organization represented by a special color illumination on April 30, 2022, to recognize MOG Awareness Month!

The Falls will be illuminated Teal, Red, Red and Teal at 10:00p.m. for a 15 minute duration. Please note that all Illumination times are approximate and subject to change according to light conditions.

Here is a live cam link where you can watch the illumination event: https://www.earthcam.com/canada/niagarafalls/?cam=niagarafalls_str 

Please share, so that families and friends can see the Falls illuminated while staying safe at home!

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Massachusetts General Hospital
Harvard University

Michael Levy, MD, PhD

Dr. Levy is an Associate Professor in Neurology who was recently recruited to lead the new Neuroimmunology Division at the Massachusetts General Hospital. His mission is to build a combined clinical and research neuroimmunology program to develop therapies for patients with autoimmune diseases of the central nervous system. Dr. Levy moved from Baltimore, MD, where he was one of the faculty at Johns Hopkins University since 2009 and Director of the Neuromyelitis Optica Clinic.

Clinically, Dr. Levy specializes in taking care of children and adults with rare neuroimmunological diseases including neuromyelitis optica, transverse myelitis, MOG antibody disease and acute disseminated encephalomyelitis. In addition to four monthly clinics, Dr. Levy is the principal investigator on several clinical studies and drug trials for these conditions.

In the laboratory, Dr. Levy’s research focuses on four main areas:
1. Development of animal models of neuromyelitis optica (NMO) with the goal of tolerization as a sustainable long term treatment: His team generated a mouse model of NMO based on pathogenic T cells reactive against the aquaporin-4 water channel. Now, they are using this mouse model to create a tolerization therapy to desensitize the immune response to aquaporin-4.
2. Genetic basis of transverse myelitis: His team discovered a genetic mutation in VPS37a found in a group of patients with a familial form of transverse myelitis (TM). To understand how this gene is involved in this immune process, they generated a mouse model with this mutation.
3. The immunopathogenesis of MOG antibody disease: This may depend on a subset of T cells called gamma/delta T cells. These specialize T cells react to MOG in mouse models and attack the central nervous system. In addition to understanding why and how these T cells are involved in MOG antibody disease, they are developing a treatment to target these cells.
4. Biomarker assays for other autoimmune diseases of the central nervous system: They are developing assays that detect autoreactive T cells in NMO and MOG antibody disease. In parallel, they are screening for novel antibodies to glial cells in related disorders such as encephalitis and optic neuritis.

Learn About The MOG Initiative