Furr Stimming Named HSG Outstanding Investigator

The Huntington Study Group (HSG) has named Erin Furr Stimming, MD, professor and Memorial Hermann Chair in the Department of Neurology with McGovern Medical School at UTHealth Houston, as its 2023 Outstanding Investigator of the Year at the HSG 30th Annual Meeting last November.

Furr Stimming won the award alongside colleague Daniel Classen, MD, professor of neurology at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, after serving as principal investigator and co-principal investigator for the KINECT-HD trial, which led to the FDA approval of valbenazine for Huntington’s disease-related chorea.

“Leading the HSG KINECT-HD study that resulted in the FDA approval of valbenazine for HD chorea was an incredible honor and couldn’t have been done without a large, wonderful team from the HSG and NBI. But, most importantly, this couldn’t have been accomplished without the individuals with HD that generously and courageously participated in this trial,” Furr Stimming says.

The KINECT-HD study showed that valbenazine, a novel vesicular monoamine transporter 2 (VMAT2) inhibitor, was able to reduce Huntington’s disease-related chorea symptoms just two weeks following the initial dose. Chorea affects the daily lives of Huntington’s disease patients by causing irregular and excessive involuntary movements.

“It is incredibly important to have additional therapeutic options for people with HD, and we are extremely grateful to our HD study participants for helping us make this new treatment available,” Furr Stimming says.

Furr Stimming has clinical expertise in evaluating and treating patients with Huntington’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, atypical Parkinsonian syndromes, focal and generalized dystonia, essential tremor, and spasticity. In 2016, her program was awarded one of 39 designated Level 2 Huntington’s Disease Society of America Centers of Excellence in the country, and the only one in Texas.
Furr Stimming received her medical degree at Finch University of Health Sciences at Chicago Medical School before completing a movement disorder fellowship, a neurology residency, and an internal medicine internship at McGovern Medical School. She joined the faculty at McGovern Medical School in 2007.

The Huntington Study Group is a world leader in conducting clinical trials and providing educational programming for Huntington’s disease. HSG 2023 focused on 30 years of new knowledge, progress, and accomplishments since its founding and the discovery of the HD gene in 1993. HD is a rare disorder – about 200,000 people worldwide have been diagnosed but many more are at risk for inheriting the disease from a parent. Huntington’s disease impacts people of all genders, races, and ethnicities. While symptomatic treatments are available, a cure for HD has yet to be discovered.