Posts by: Maureen Newman

Maureen Newman

Maureen Newman is a researcher by trade, and brings her knowledge of the lab to BioNews Texas. Currently, she is serving as a PhD student at University of Rochester, and working towards a career of research in biomaterials for drug delivery and regenerative medicine. She is an integral part of Dr. Danielle Benoit’s laboratory, where she is investigating bone-homing therapeutics for osteoporosis treatment.

October 13, 2015October 13, 2015

Muscle Thickness Decreases Over Time in SMA Type 1 as Measured by Ultrasound

News, Spinal Muscular Atrophy

Children with spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) have weaker muscles than children who are not affected by muscle myopathies and new results from a study conducted at Washington University School ... Read more

September 8, 2015September 8, 2015

Gene Targeting Therapy Investigated in SMA Cells

News, Spinal Muscular Atrophy

When a protein is missing in a cell, as in the case of spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) where survival motor neuron (SMN) is missing, a variety of methods can ... Read more

August 18, 2015August 18, 2015

Neural Stem Cells From SMA Model Exhibit Altered Growth Kinetics

News, Spinal Muscular Atrophy

Researchers have understood the genetic basis of spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) for many years. Mutations in the gene that encodes the protein survival motor neuron (SMN1) are the most ... Read more

May 5, 2015May 5, 2015

Researchers Targeting Astrocytes Discover Treatment Benefits in SMA-Induced Mice

News, Spinal Muscular Atrophy

Previously thought to be a disease only of motor neurons, spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) is now also known to be influenced by support cells of the central nervous system. ... Read more

April 8, 2015April 8, 2015

SMA Patient Muscle is Deficient in Mitochondrial Biogenesis

News, Spinal Muscular Atrophy

Patients with spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) exhibit many signs of mitochondrial paucity. Weakened muscles and other pathologic muscle changes are accompanied by decreased levels of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) and ... Read more

April 7, 2015April 7, 2015

SMA Severity Correlates with DNA Methylation

News, Spinal Muscular Atrophy

Patients with spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) are subdivided into four categories based on disease severity and age of diagnosis, with type I the most severe and diagnosed in infancy ... Read more

March 31, 2015November 30, 2016

Key Neuromuscular Junction Found To Be Impaired in SMA

News, Spinal Muscular Atrophy

Researchers in the Division of Pharmacology, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at Kobe University Graduate School of Medicine in Japan are looking at ways of modeling spinal muscular ... Read more

March 13, 2015March 13, 2015

New PCR Method Helps Determine SMA Type

News, Spinal Muscular Atrophy

Determining the exact mutations responsible for spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) can be difficult. The condition is caused by complete deletion of the gene for survival motor neuron 1 (SMN1) ... Read more

March 10, 2015March 10, 2015

Correcting Splicing Error Restores SMN in SMA Patient Cells

News, Spinal Muscular Atrophy

Perhaps the result of a gene duplication event 5 million years ago, humans have two copies of the gene for survival motor neuron (SMN). Patients with spinal muscular atrophy ... Read more

February 26, 2015February 26, 2015

Modeling Disease And Restoring SMN Expression: Leading-Edge Research in SMA

News, Spinal Muscular Atrophy

“This is an exciting time for spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) patients, families and researchers,” indicated an article published in the journal F1000Prime Reports. “Not only are multiple clinical trials based ... Read more