The ML4 Foundation, originally known as CHARM (Children's Association for Research on Mucolipidosis), was founded in 1982 by Ron & Lynn Goldblatt, their parents, Roz and Joe Zakutinsky, other family members, and close friends.

In 1984 with the diagnosis of their daughter Lauren, Jordan Glaser and Randy Yudenfriend Glaser joined CHARM. Shortly afterwards the name of the organization was changed to the ML4 Foundation. Randy was elected President and served for over 20 years, until January 2009.  Paul Tanenholz is now the current President.  Jordan continues to serve as Medical Director.

ML4 was unheard of years ago. Most doctors did not know of this disorder. After exploring many avenues and researching whatever publications were available, we came across Dr. Gideon Bach - the head of the Human Genetics Department of Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem, Israel. At that time, he informed us that there were 12 reported cases in the world. Since then, it has grown in numbers to almost a hundred reported cases, but doctors estimate there are many more times this number not diagnosed or misdiagnosed as cerebral palsy.

Medical research was the major reason we started the organization. In addition, we wanted to reach out to other families affected with this debilitating disorder.