Strength is More than Muscle®

and we are proud to share our strength WITH Duchenne research, and Duchenne Families.

Accessibilty

For boys with Duchenne muscular dystrophy , an electric wheelchair can be more than a mobility aid. It can be a way to keep up with friends, explore new places, and participate in the things that make childhood what it should be.

Many insurance plans limit wheelchair coverage to one chair every five years. But Duchenne is progressive, and a family’s needs don’t always fit into a five-year timeline. Some boys need extra help with longer distances and stamina long before they need a full-time wheelchair.

We’ve seen this in our own family. Fritz need for a power chair for longer outings so he can keep up with his friends, explore places like the zoo, and enjoy experiences that would otherwise leave him exhausted. But using insurance for a chair now could limit our ability to access another one when his needs change in the years ahead.

We want to help bridge that gap.

Share your strength! Help us put a chair within reach of a family who needs one. Your donation will help provide boys with greater freedom to explore, participate, and make memories with their friends—without having to wait for their needs to fit an insurance timeline.

Every donation brings us one step closer to giving another boy the freedom to be a kid.

Adaptive Skiing

We believe accessibility is about more than access—it’s about opportunity. Fritz & Friends DMD is proud to sponsor families to experience adaptive skiing through High Country Adaptive Sports at Arizona Snowbowl.

By helping remove the financial and logistical barriers, we’re giving kids with Duchenne the chance to get on the mountain, try something new, and make memories with their families.

Through Fritz & Friends DMD, we’re raising funds to provide beginner power chairs to boys who are starting to experience the effects of Duchenne on their mobility and endurance.

SCIENCE

Drug development for rare disease is challenging. The “one size fits all” approach to drug development is not sufficient, and we are choosing to take another shot on goal in the rare disease space with a technology called CRISPR. For patients with Duchenne muscular dystrophy, CRISPR technology offers one of the greatest opportunities to restore the dystrophin protein to muscles by editing the DMD gene.
Researchers have discovered how to harness this mechanism by programming CRISPR to act as “molecular scissors,” deleting or replacing strands of mutated DNA in order to modify gene function. In the case of Duchenne, it can be used to restore the ability of the DMD gene to produce dystrophin. This has already been proven in animal models.

• April 2021 Fritz had a muscle biopsy. This biopsy is used to set up both a cell line and develop a mouse model with Fritz’s specific DMD causing mutation.

• Jan-July 2022, CRISPR constructs were developed and tested on his cell line, showing efficacy. A

• Sep-Feb 2022, A mouse model containing Fritz’s specific DMD causing mutation was developed. A colony was engineered, characterized, and prepped for further safety & efficacy experiments.

• Sept 2023- Dec 2023 mice and materials are being prepped for the 12 wk pharm-tox study to measure efficacy of this therapeutic.

• Jan 2025: Fritz’s Project has been paused due to complexity in dosing.

  *This is a specific update on Fritz’s project, however there are many other boys who are also benefiting in similar ways from the strength you share!