Prof. Dr. Albena Yordanova, db, an affiliated scientist at MU-Sofia, won an award for her overall contribution to the study of rare diseases in Belgium. The “Generet” award of the Koning Baudowain Foundation is awarded to one scientist per year and is worth 1 million euros. Prof. Yordanova and her team will use the award for research on rare peripheral polyneuropathies, some of which have been discovered in Bulgarian families.
The research will be conducted in collaboration between the University of Antwerp, MU-Sofia (the teams of Prof. Dr. Ivaylo Tarnev, MD, and Prof. Dr. Ivan Litvinenko, MD), the University of Birmingham, UK, Hackensack Meridian School of Medicine, USA, and the Hereditary Neuropathy Foundation.
Prof. Albena Yordanova works at the VIB‑UAntwerp Center for Molecular Neurology, but is also part of the team at the Department of Medicinal Chemistry and Biochemistry at the Faculty of Medicine of MU-Sofia.
Prof. Yordanova’s research is dedicated to the rare neurological disease Charcot-Marie-Tooth or CMT. It is one of the most common hereditary diseases, affecting 1 in 2,000 people, but Prof. Yordanova is studying a specific form of CMT that has been diagnosed in only 6 families worldwide.
Rare diseases affect less than one in 2,000 people, but since there are more than 6,000 rare diseases, the total number of people affected is very large. The impact of the diseases on patients and their families is enormous. Many patients still do not receive a clear diagnosis or are diagnosed very late, and do not receive appropriate treatment. That is why the Generet Fund prize is a prestigious annual award to a leading researcher whose work can make a real difference for people living with a rare disease. This year, Prof. Albena Yordanova is recognized as such a changemaker.
