The NIH-supported Boston Biomedical Research Institute Senator Paul D. Wellstone Muscular Dystrophy Cooperative Research Center for FSHD will further the understanding of the underlying molecular and cellular pathology of facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy (FSHD) and is establishing muscle tissue and cell repository biomarker databases as resources for FSHD research and evaluation of outcomes of FSHD clinical trials. The Center is led by Dr. Charles P. Emerson at the Boston Biomedical Research Institute, and Dr. Louis Kunkel at Children's Hospital Boston and Harvard Medical School, and includes investigators at Kennedy Krieger Institute, Johns Hopkins Hospital, Boston Biomedical Research Institute, University of Sao Paolo, University of Maryland School of Medicine, and the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center. The Center partners with the FSH Society for patient outreach activities and with two biotechnology companies, Acceleron Pharma and Genzyme/Myosix, for therapeutic development.