The Today Show, December 26, 2005, Featuring the SMA Foundation

On Monday, December 26, 2005, NBC’s The Today Show featured one family’s fight against thgenetic motor neuron disease Spinal Muscular Atrophy and the impact SMA has on parensearching for a treatment for their child. The show highlighted the daily struggle that 6-year-old Arya faces battling the effects of SMA and how she and her parents, Loren Eng and Dinakar Singh, are learning to live with her devastating diagnosis and the realities of the disease. Ms. Eng and Mr. Singh launched the SMA Foundation in 2003 in order to accelerate the development of a treatment for SMA, a disease that was selected by the NIH for a prototype translational research project. The hope for the development of a treatment in the near-term is real; leadingscientists and clinicians believe that with increased funding, treatment is possible within the next 5 years.