By Associated Press
Buffalo, NY – Jim Kelly made his name in Buffalo playing football. The Hall of Fame quarterback's son, Hunter Kelly, will now have a bigger and more lasting impact. The Hunter's Hope Foundation and the University at Buffalo announced Friday an agreement to establish a research institute focusing on Krabbe disease and related ailments. The institute will be part of the university's Center of Excellence in Bioinformatics and named after Hunter James Kelly, the 7-year-old who suffers from the deadly disease.
As part of the agreement, the foundation will establish a $3 million endowment to support the institute, which will be based at the school's medical campus. "The Hunter James Kelly Research Institute is more than a dream come true for our family and Hunter's Hope," Jim Kelly said. "When we started the Hunter's Hope Foundation seven years ago ... we could never had anticipated at that time how blessed we would be today." Krabbe disease is an inherited degenerative disorder that hinders development of the fatty sheath, known as myelin, that protects the brain's nerve fibers. The disease, which has no known cure, induces seizures, stiffens limbs and slows motor and mental development. Most born with Krabbe don't live past their second birthday. The research conducted at the institute will focus on establishing techniques to replenish the fatty sheath to help correct the condition. The studies are expected to also help aid those that have multiple sclerosis, suffered strokes and have other diseases that affect the brain's white matter. "The new institute will give UB the opportunity to make significant contributions to medical research in this field," said Margaret Paroski, interim dean of Buffalo's school of medicine and biomedical sciences. The Kelly family established Hunter's Hope in 1997 in honor of their son to promote public awareness of the category of diseases called leukodystrophies, which include Krabbe, and has since awarded nearly $4 million for research. Discussions to establish the institute in Buffalo began in 2002.