MDA’s research program awards grants to the world’s best scientists investigating promising theories and therapies that may accelerate treatments and cures for families living with muscle-debilitating diseases. In 2017 MDA awarded four of these research grants to individuals dedicated to hopefully one day eradicating spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) and spinal-bulbar muscular atrophy (SBMA). Learn more about their research below.
Laxman Gangwani, associate professor in the department of biomedical sciences at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center in El Paso, Texas, was awarded an MDA research grant totaling $280,500 over three years to identify therapeutic targets in SMA.
Maria Pennuto, associate professor at Dulbecco Telethon Institute Lab of Neurodegenerative Diseases, Centre for Integrative Biology (CIBIO) at the University of Trento in Italy, was awarded an MDA research grant totaling $300,000 over three years to increase understanding of disease mechanisms that underlie SBMA.
Albert La Spada, professor of pediatrics, cellular & molecular medicine, neurosciences, and biological sciences at the University of California, San Diego, in La Jolla, Calif., was awarded an MDA research grant totaling $300,000 over three years to study disease mechanisms in SBMA.
Five Questions with Researcher Andrew Lieberman
Andrew Lieberman, the Gerald Abrams Collegiate Professor of Pathology at University of Michigan Medical School in Ann Arbor, was awarded an MDA research grant totaling $300,000 over three years to test a modified antisense oligonucleotide (ASO) therapy to treat spinal-bulbar muscular atrophy (SBMA).
Learn more about MDA’s Research Grants.
