JK Rowling Donates $15.4 Million for Multiple Sclerosis Center

by Thilaka Ravi on August 31, 2010 at 11:50 PM

Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling has given $15.4 million towards a Clinic which will treat and research Multiple Sclerosis, the disease that killed her mother. Named the Anne Rowling Regenerative Neurology Clinic, after Rowling's mother, the clinic will be based at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland. The university said Rowling's $ 15.4 million is the largest single donation it has received so far.

The writer who fired the imagination of young minds with her boy wizard creation, said she hopes the clinic will become a "world center for excellence in the field of regenerative neurology." The center will also study other degenerative neurological conditions such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease.

Multiple Sclerosis

Multiple sclerosis can be a severely disabling autoimmune disease that affects the myelin or insulating layer of the nerve fibers and typically has remissions and relapses

JK Rowling, a long term resident of Edinburgh, the Scottish capital said funding the university to attract world-class minds in the field of neuro regeneration was the most meaningful way to back to the city all the goodness it had given her. JK Rowling's mother died in 1990 at the age of 45, before the writer struck gold with her Harry Potter series.

Multiple sclerosis affects about 100,000 people in Britain, and Scotland has one of the world's highest incidences of the disease. Though genetics and environmental factors are thought to play a part in causing Multiple Sclerosis the causes and course of the disease are not fully understood.

Source: Medindia

Parkinsons Disease

Parkinson's disease is a neurodegenerative disease caused by progressive dopamine brain cells loss. Symptoms of Parkinson's disease are correctable to an extent.

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