Mother's resolve leads to medical breakthrough at U of M

A New Jersey mother, determined to help her sons get better, has sparked a medical breakthrough at the University of Minnesota. A team of doctors believes it has discovered the cure for a deadly skin disease called epidermolysis bullosa.

It's a disease that can lead to an aggressive form of skin cancer in children. For those suffering from it, the slightest touch of the skin can make it fall off, leaving one's body raw and blistered.

"There are very few times in our lives in medical research that we actually have a homerun, and this feels like a homerun," said Dr. John Wagner of the University of Minnesota. He says the breakthrough came thanks to a mom who refused to take 'no' for an answer.

Theresa Liao sought out Dr. John Wagner, after learning that two of her boys suffered from the disease. She had learned that Dr. Wagner specializes in finding cures for previously incurable diseases, and she begged him to help her sons.

"Theresa was the reason we got started. Theresa asked me publicly what could I do to save her child, and I didn't know very much about this disease, so I began to learn about this disease," said Dr. Wagner.

What he learned, is that people with the disease are missing a protein that allows velcro like fibers to grow. Those fibrils attach the skin to the body.

Dr. Wagner and a team of researchers began testing treatments on mice genetically engineered to have epidermolysis bullosa. The results were so encouraging that the hospital approved the treatment for two-year-old Nate. He underwent a first-of-its kind bone marrow transplant last fall.

Six months later, Theresa Liao believes she has witnessed a miracle.

"Each biopsy has gotten better and better and better. Each biopsy shows his body producing more and more of that previously missing protein," said Liao.

"This is all working out so much better than we expected and there are very few times... that we can ever say that we've cured someone. But this surely feels like it," Dr. Wagner said.

And that is why Theresa is back in Minnesota. Last Friday, her five-year-old son Jake became the second person in the world to receive a bone marrow transplant.

"Hopefully we'll have the same results with Jake,"said Theresa. "It's been a long ordeal, and it's not over yet."

But Theresa feels gratitude that she may be able to keep the promise that she made her boys.

"They told us you could manage the disease, not a word I accepted too well. I made a vow to my son that we were going to do everything we could to make this go away. And we're able to say now that we did," Theresa said, smiling.

The University of Minnesota already has more than 70 requests from families around the world who are seeking treatment, and that was before the announcement of a potential cure.

To donate to the Liao family:Bank of AmericaAttn: Friends of Jake510 W Main StFreehold, NJ 07728 *Address checks to "Friends of Jake."

To donate to EB research at the University of Minnesota:Minnesota Medical Foundation ACCOUNT # 2282 - Epidermolysis Bullosa PO Box 64001 St. Paul, MN 55164-0001

By Julie Nelson, KARE 11 News

(Copyright 2007 by KARE. All Rights Reserved.)

By Julie Nelson, KARE 11 News

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