Researchers gain new insights on spinal muscular atrophy

Researchers from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine discovered that the effect of a protein deficiency, which is the basis of the neuromuscular disease spinal muscular atrophy (SMA), is not restricted to motor nerve cells, suggesting that SMA is a more general disorder. This new insight will allow for better understanding of how this complex disease arises. Gideon Dreyfuss, PhD, the Isaac Norris Professor of Biochemistry and Biophysics and Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute and colleagues, report their findings in last week's issue of Cell.