Brian Kaspar, PhD, principal investigator in the Center for Gene Therapy at The Research Institute at Nationwide Children’s Hospital, along with a team of Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA) researchers and clinicians, recently received a $250,000 grant for SMA research and clinic development from Sophia’s Cure Foundation via the Pepsi Refresh Project.
It is estimated that SMA occurs between one-in-6,000 and one-in-20,000 births. One-in-40 to one-in-80 “normal” men and women carry the gene for SMA, and if both a man and woman carry the gene, there is a 25% chance that any of their children will manifest SMA.
Sophia’s Cure Foundation, a not-for-profit organization created to assist in funding clinical research for SMA and to offer support to families affected by SMA received the $250,000 grant from the Pepsi Refresh Project and awarded it to Kaspar and his team.
“We are extremely honored to be able to fund such an incredibly promising program,” Vincent Gaynor of Sophia’s Cure Foundation, stated in a press release. “Dr. Kaspar and his team are some of the most talented and devoted researchers in the field. It was our mission to educate the community on their promising work, and to bring together a united effort to see Dr. Kaspar’s SMA research funded. There is a tremendous amount of work yet to be done, and we look forward to continuing our support of this research.”
The grant of $250,000 will assist Kaspar and his team at Nationwide Children’s in research and development.
“Spinal Muscular Atrophy research and therapeutic development stands to gain from this important and generous investment, and we all look forward to translating our research to advance human clinical trials,” Kaspar, also a faculty member at The Ohio State University College of Medicine, stated.
