(MENAFNEditorial) Online PR News – 10-March-2016 – Richmond Virginia – FightSMA is marking its 25th year with an international research conference April 7-9 in Alexandria VA that will see the gathering of leading spinal muscular atrophy researchers and the naming of 2016 Emerging Investigator Award (EIA) winners.
FightSMA is an all-volunteer parent-led nonprofit with a mission to strategically accelerate research for a treatment for spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) the number-one inherited cause of infant death. "We are thrilled with the participants that we are hosting for this years research conference" said FightSMA Co-Founder Martha Slay. "Some of these men and women have been laboring in the SMA field for many years and others are new to the fight. It will be a dynamic conference." "FightSMAs annual research meeting is an extraordinary opportunity for the best and brightest in the research community to come together for open productive discussions" said FightSMA Research Director Dr. Chris Lorson of the University of Missouri. "The meeting is an exciting forum not just for sharing data but also for charting the paths ahead." Participating institutions include: AveXis
Biogen
Childrens Hospital of Eastern Ontario
Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
Columbia University
Cytokinetics
F.Hoffmann-LaRoche
Ionis
Johns Hopkins Medicine
Massachusetts General Hospital
Medical College of Wisconsin
National Human Genome Research Institute NIH
National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke NIH
National Institute of Child Health and Human Development NIH
Nationwide Childrens Hospital
Northwestern University and Lurie Childrens Hospital
Novartis Institutes of Biomedical Research
Ottawa Hospital Research Institute
PTC Therapeutics
Sarepta Therapeutics
SMA Foundation
The Ohio State University
University of Edinburgh
Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences
University of Missouri The FightSMA annual research meeting is the occasion for recognition of the most recent awardees in the Emerging Investigator Awards (EIA) competition established three years ago by FightSMA and the Gwendolyn Strong Foundation. The program has provided more than $500000 in EIA awards. "FightSMAs annual research meeting and the Emerging Investigator Award Program support novel research projects and provide the forum to rigorously challenge these new concepts" said Dr. Barrington G. Burnett of the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in Bethesda MD a past winner. Past Emerging Investigator Award winners and their institutions are: Edinburgh University: Dr. Lyndsay Murray
Johns Hopkins School of Medicine: Dr. Constantin dYdewalle
Cincinnati Childrens Hospital: Dr. Steven Crone
University of Missouri: Dr. Hansjorg Rindt
Ohio State University: Dr. Kevin Foust
Uniformed Services Univ. of the Health Sciences: Dr. Barrington G. Burnett
Indiana University School of Medicine: Dr. Sara Custer
Childrens Hospital of Eastern Ontario: Dr. Faraz Farooq
University of Oxford: Dr. Melissa Bowerman
University of Missouri: Dr. Erkan Osman
Indiana University School of Medicine: Dr. Anne Reitz
Columbia University: Dr. Eileen Workman FightSMA ( http://www.fightsma.org ) is an all-volunteer parent-led nonprofit dedicated to finding a treatment for spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) the leading genetic cause of infant death. The group has awarded research grants at 45 universities and research institutions in the United States Canada the United Kingdom France and Italy. Celebrating its 25th year FightSMA was an early funder of the hunt for the SMA gene. FightSMA has funded high-throughput screening for SMN gene upregulation SMA mouse model research SMA gene therapy research and other SMA projects. Its annual international research meeting has been held for 20 years. FightSMA played a leadership role in the successful passage of the National Pediatric Research Network Act in 2013.
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