May 2010  

We are delighted to announce that the SMA Trust have awarded a £62,000 project grant to Prof. Tom Gillingwater's lab, to further their research into spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) which is a devastating form of motor neuron disease for which there is currently no cure. 

Prof. Gillingwater's team will use samples from mouse models and SMA patients to examine molecular changes occurring in differently affected groups of muscles throughout the progression of the disease. These experiments will significantly enhance our understanding of the disease and potentially identify new therapeutic targets to prevent or slow muscle wasting. 

In addition they will also identify 'biomarker' proteins in muscle which can be used to accurately measure and compare disease progression in different SMA patients. This is critical for testing the effectiveness of new treatments or therapeutics for SMA in clinical trials.