News Release

Foundations join forces to find a cure or treatment for deadly genetic disease

Major research grant announced

Grant and Award Announcement

American Academy of Neurology

ST. PAUL, MN (July 18, 2003) – The Spinal Muscular Atrophy Foundation and the American Academy of Neurology Foundation today announced a major research grant to help discover a treatment or cure for Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA), the leading genetic killer of infants and toddlers.

The project will fund up to three Young Investigator Awards in SMA (each individual grant totaling more than $350,000 and lasting three years) to be awarded to qualifying investigators. The research award will support not only the young investigator, but also their mentor in SMA research.

"We believe this is an unparalleled opportunity to help change the outcome in one of the most devastating of all neurological diseases," said AAN Foundation Chair Kenneth Viste, MD. "Progress in SMA research offers hope to the more than 25,000 families living with the disorder."

More than seven million potential parents, most unknowingly, carry the gene that can give their children this crippling disease. Each year, up to 1,000 babies are born with SMA, a deadly hereditary disease that spells a life of suffering and premature death, usually before the age of two. Yet scientists believe that this is one of the diseases closest to treatment. Significantly, the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, part of the National Institutes of Health, recently designated SMA as a model disease for translational research funding.

"The Fellowship will provide promising clinician researchers with the resources to propel the recent scientific breakthroughs toward a treatment in the near term," said Loren Eng, president of the SMA Foundation.

The Young Investigator Awards provide new opportunities to recruit the brightest young investigators in the neurosciences to join teams dedicated to addressing this opportunity to make rapid advancement. Under the auspices of the AAN Foundation, proposals are being solicited from across the country and around the world. Potential investigators should be clinicians with an interest in a long-term career in clinical research in SMA.

Applications for the Young Investigator Award will be due October 1, 2003.

More information about the Young Investigator Awards can be obtained from the AAN Foundation at http://www.neurofoundation.org or by calling 651-695-2712. Information about SMA can be found at http://www.smafoundation.org.

Affiliated with the American Academy of Neurology, the American Academy of Neurology Foundation is a 501c3 nonprofit organization dedicated to advancing support for public education and research in neurology. The Spinal Muscular Atrophy Foundation is also a 501c3 organization dedicated to education and research toward a treatment, improved quality of life and cure of SMA.

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Editor's Note: A press kit about SMA and the Young Investigator Awards is available at http://www.aan.com/press/media/index.cfm.


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