Foundation News

Save the Date – Society for Neuroscience 2011 Monday November 14, 2011 6:30 – 9:30 p.m. Washington Convention Center, 150B Pretzels and endplates: Motor neuron pathology and the role of SMN in motor neuron development Chien-Ping Ko, PhD, University of Southern California “Synaptic defects in the spinal and neuromuscular circuitry in SMA” George Mentis, PhD,…

The SMA Foundation announced today that Karen Chen, PhD, has been named Chief Operating Officer (COO). In addition to Dr. Chen’s continued role as Chief Scientific Officer (CSO), she will also be responsible for managing the day-to-day business operations of the Foundation. Additionally, both Dione Kobayashi, PhD and Sergey Paushkin, MD, PhD have been promoted…

Congratulations to Umrao Monani, Assistant Professor at the Motor Neuron Center of Columbia University and Cathleen Lutz, Associate Director of Genetic Research Science at The Jackson Laboratory, and their colleagues for their new publication “Postsymptomatic Restoration of SMN Rescues the Disease Phenotype in a Mouse Model of Severe Spinal Muscular Atrophy” in the Journal of…

Congratulations to SMA Foundation Investigator, Lee Rubin, Director of Translational Medicine at the Harvard Stem Cell Institute, and his team for publishing their article, “A Screen for Regulators of Survival of Motor Neuron Protein Levels” in Nature Chemical Biology on June 19, 2011. The article describes a novel image-based screen to identify compounds that increase…

FARMINGDALE, NY and NEW YORK, NY – March 15, 2011 – Enzo Biochem, Inc. and the Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA) Foundation today announced that Enzo’s wholly owned subsidiary, Enzo Life Sciences Inc., has launched a unique immunoassay (ELISA) system which can be used for the identification and detection of Survival Motor Neuron (SMN) protein. The kit…

The SMA Foundation announced today that Cynthia Joyce will be stepping down as Executive Director of the Foundation at the end of this month. Effective April 2, 2011, Ms. Joyce will become a member of the Foundation’s Board of Directors and has been elected to the office of Vice-Chair. Ms. Joyce was the first employee…

The New York State Department of Health Announces Genetic Diseases of Children…Advancing Research & Care Conference to be held on March 8-9, 2011 at the Sheraton New York Towers & Hotel in New York City. This is a national conference focused on creating opportunities to advance research and improve the delivery of health care for…

Congratulations to SMA Foundation Investigator, George Mentis, Assistant Professor at the Motor Neuron Center of Columbia University, for his recent article “Early Functional Impairment of Sensory-Motor Connectivity in a Mouse Model of Spinal Muscular Atrophy” published in Neuron on February 10, 2011. The article examines the onset of motor neuron loss in a mouse model…

Congratulations to Foundation Investigator Seward Rutkove, the recipient of the $1MM Biomarker Prize from the Prize4Life Foundation! The Prize was awarded for Dr. Rutkove’s work to advance the use of electrical impedance myography (EIM) as a biomarker measure for ALS. The SMA Foundation funded a pilot study of EIM in children with SMA to determine…

New York, NY – January 20, 2011 – The Spinal Muscular Atrophy Foundation announces the addition of Andrew Knight, Helen Meates, Stephen Mikita, Juli Oh and Simon Prisk to the SMA Foundation Board of Directors. They join a distinguished group of business and scientific leaders who oversee the SMA Foundation. Currently, there is no treatment…