June 29, 2004

6th Annual UCSD Christini Fund Golf Tournament
Celebrates Achievements In Mitochondrial Medicine
Charity Event Scheduled for July 20th at The Crosby National Golf Club

By Sue Pondrom

The 6th Annual UCSD Christini* Fund Golf Tournament will be held July 20th, 2004 at The Crosby Golf Club in Rancho Santa Fe.

Each year since its inauguration in 1999, the UCSD Christini Fund Golf Tournament has helped raise public awareness about mitochondrial disease and has contributed directly to important research in mitochondrial medicine. The event has helped further research into a disease that currently has no cure, yet is as common as childhood cancer.

“Last year, when we celebrated the 5th anniversary of the Christini Fund Golf Tournament, we were very proud to have reached that important milestone,” said Debbie Shimizu, founder of the Christini Fund. “With our support, significant breakthroughs in mitochondrial disease research have been made, but there is so much more work to be done if a cure is to be found. With this in mind, I hope that the loyal supporters of our event will come out again this year and bring their friends to have fun as well as be involved with something really special.”

The Christini Fund was established by Debbie and Don Shimizu of Carmel Valley in memory of their daughter Christine who, at 11 months of age, was diagnosed with the most lethal form of mitochondrial disease called Leigh's Syndrome. The disease, which causes damage to critical areas of the brain that control breathing, blood pressure, appetite, and coordination, claimed Christini's life shortly after her second birthday.

With support from the Christini Fund, researchers at the UCSD Mitochondrial and Metabolic Disease Center (MMDC), headed by Robert Naviaux, M.D., Ph.D., founder and co-director of the MMDC, have made important discoveries on three of the genes involved in the fundamental process of mitochondrial DNA production. Most recently, Dr. Naviaux discovered the cause of a devastating mitochondrial disease called Alpers Syndrome, and has developed a DNA test to help with diagnosis.

Also in the first five years, Christini Fund donations have led to 25 new scientific publications, have aided UCSD scientists in better understanding the link between infection and neurodegeneration, and have led to a national standards effort for the diagnosis of mitochondrial disease and a world registry of mitochondrial disease.

Every year, the UCSD Christini Fund Golf Tournament is dedicated to someone battling mitochondrial disease. This year, the event honors Cristin Murphy-Zink, whose quality of life was dramatically improved by a promising new medicine called TAU. Cristin is a ten-year-old girl with a mitochondrial disease that nearly ended her life before age three. Before being treated with TAU, a drug developed by Dr.Naviaux for treating mitochondrial disease, Cristin couldn’t talk and could barely walk. She was plagued with seizures that were often triggered by simple childhood ear, throat, and sinus infections “Today Cristin no longer takes any seizure medicine but TAU and is able to run and play, laugh, ride, and swim with her many friends at school in Connecticut, where her family now lives,” said Dr.Naviaux. “Her life has been improved dramatically by the caring physicians and ground-breaking research done at the MMDC with Christini Fund support.”

Mitochondrial medicine is a new field, which focuses on the role of mitochondrial failure in devastating disorders. Found in every cell in the human body, mitochondria convert food and air into the energy needed by cells to function. When mitochondria fail to generate sufficient energy or do not perform their task in specific tissues, often several organ systems are affected in sequence, one faltering or failing after another. If a person is stricken with a catastrophic disease affecting three or more organ systems, he or she may have a mitochondrial disease.

Golfers can participate in the Sixth Annual UCSD Christini Fund Golf Tournament with a donation of $400 per person or $1,500 per foursome. The event includes a day of golf, contests, lunch, gifts, prizes, dinner, opportunity drawings and silent and live auctions. The tournament is a scramble format with a 12 p.m. shotgun start at The Crosby Golf Club in Rancho Santa Fe. For more information, please call Debbie Shimizu at
(858) 350-6343.

*Christini is the Shimizu family's nickname for Christine.

Contact:
Sue Pondrom, UCSD Health Sciences Communications (619) 543-6163
Debbie Shimizu, Christini Fund Founder (858) 350-6343