GREAT STRIDES is the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation's largest and most successful national fund-raising event. This year, the University of Iowa team –"Gene Therapy Center Hawkeyes" – will be participating in the GREAT STRIDES walk on September 26th 2009, beginning at the City Park shelter #12 at 10am. Please help us meet our Team’s fund-raising goal of $10,000 and hopefully more. Your generous gift will be used efficiently and effectively, as nearly 90 cents of every dollar of revenue raised is available for investment in vital Cystic Fibrosis (CF) programs to support research, care, and education.

This year scientists from several University of Iowa CF Research Laboratories in the Center for Gene Therapy of Cystic Fibrosis and Other Genetic Diseases are teaming up to help raise money for the CF Foundation's important causes. We hope you will join us, the "Gene Therapy Center Hawkeyes", on the Great Strides walk, and/or consider contributing to this worthy cause to help in the fight to cure CF. The CF Foundation has been a major source of support for research and clinical care at the University of Iowa. Over the past 10 years, the CF Foundation has provided $15.4 million dollars in support to the University of Iowa’s CF research programs. Now they need our help!

Cystic Fibrosis is a devastating genetic disease that affects tens of thousands of children and young adults in the United States. Research and care supported by the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation is making a huge difference in improving the quality of life for those with CF. However, we continue to lose precious lives to CF every day and with the current difficult economic climate, donations to the CF Foundation are significantly down and important programs they fund are in jeopardy of being cut. That's why your help is needed now more than ever to ensure that a cure is found sooner - rather than later. To learn more about CF and the CF Foundation, visit http://www.cff.org.

Making a donation is easy and secure! Just click the "Click to Donate" button on this page to make a donation that will be credited to the UI team. Any amount you can donate is greatly appreciated! Together, we can make a difference in the lives of those with CF! Thank you for supporting the mission of the CF Foundation and GREAT STRIDES!

Current Gene Therapy Center Hawkeyes' Team members walking for a cure:

(Engelhardt Lab): John Engelhardt; John Fisher; Ziying Yan; Xiaoming Liu; Hongshu Sui

(McCray Lab): Paul McCray; Erin Burnight; Hong Peng Jia; Jennifer Bartlett

(Starner Lab): Timothy Starner

(Welsh Lab): Leah Reznikov; Jianyang Du