Over the past few months, Cure SMA has announced a total of $1.85 million in new research funding. Our model is designed to fund both a breadth and a depth of projects, in order to continuing building up both a breadth and depth of programs in the drug pipeline. This includes funding for:
- Basic research, to investigate the biology and cause of SMA, in order to identify the most effective strategies for drug discovery; and to develop tools that facilitate SMA research.
- Drug discovery, to convert basic research ideas into practical new drug candidates.
- Clinical research, to develop the tools to allow clinical trials to be conducted in all types and stages of SMA.
- Clinical care, to understanding issues like breathing and nutrition that impact current quality of life for those affected by SMA.
- 19th Annual SMA Researcher Meeting, to bring together the leading SMA scientists, clinicians, and drug developer together to develop SMA research strategies.
If you missed any of our funding announcements, catch up on them in our news section using the links below. Each announcement includes a profile of the researcher who is receiving the grant, and explains more about their projects and how they might benefit the SMA community.
Basic Research
- $140,000 to Sara Custer, PhD, at Indiana University
- $140,000 to Francesco Lotti, PhD, at Columbia University
- $140,000 to Mustafa Sahin, MD, PhD, at Boston Children’s Hospital
- $80,000 to Linda Lowes, PT, PhD, at Nationwide Children’s Hospital*
- $140,000 to Chad Heatwole, MD, at the University of Rochester*
Drug Discovery
- $330,000 to California Institute of Biomedical Research and their collaborators, led by Peter Schultz, PhD
- $445,000 to Brian Kaspar, PhD, at Nationwide Children’s Hospital
Clinical Care
- $50,000 to Nilesh Mehta, MD, at Boston Children’s Hospital
- $50,000 to Walter Truong, MD, at Gillette Children’s
- $30,000 to Deborah Boroughs, RN, MSN, at BAYADA Home Health Care
- $50,000 to Rebecca Hurst Davis, MS, RD, CSP, CD, at University of Utah
- $50,000 to Martin Lemay, PhD, at Université du Québec à Montréal
SMA Researcher Meeting
- $200,000 to bring the leading SMA researchers together from around the world
*The grants to Dr. Heatwole and Dr. Lowes, both of which deal with clinical trial outcome measures, were jointly funded by basic research and clinical research grant money.
We thank the following families and foundations for their generous contributions toward these grants: The Jacob Isaac Rappoport Foundation toward Drs. Custer, Sahin, Lotti, and Kaspar; The Miller McNeil Woodruff Foundation toward Drs. Lowes and Kaspar; The Michael and Chandra Rudd Foundation toward Drs. Kaspar and Schultz; The Spinal Muscular Atrophy Research Team toward Dr. Heatwole; FSMA Canada toward Dr. Lemay.