The Scientific Advisory Board was established in 1986. Through the Board's invaluable expertise, research projectes at Families of SMA are evaluated. The members of the SAB annually review all applications for research grants, using a procedure similar to that used at NIH. This group also helps plan the program of the Annual International SMA Research Group Meeting. We would like to thank the members of the Scientific Advisory Board for their expertise in ensuring that the "best" SMA research is funded by FSMA.

Jill Jarecki, Ph.D., FSMA Research Director.
Dr. Jarecki serves as the coordinator of the FSMA Scientific Advisory Board. Prior to joining FSMA, Dr. Jarecki studied neuromuscular development in graduate school at Yale University and was a post-doctoral fellow at Stanford University. Most recently she was a senior scientist at Invitrogen Corporation and also Vertex Pharmaceuticals, where she led a drug discovery program to identify potential small molecule therapeutics for SMA.

Current Members of the FSMA Scientific Advisory Board

Arthur H. Burghes, Ph.D.
Dr. Burghes is a Professor of Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry at the Ohio State University and an expert in the field of SMA biology.  His laboratory focuses on the molecular understanding of genetic neuromuscular disorders, in particular SMA. Dr. Burghes developed the first animal model of SMA and demonstrated that high copy numbers of the SMN2 gene can rescue the SMA mouse.  Dr. Burghes joined the SAB in 2002.  Please click here to see his web page at OSU.  

Tom Crawford, M.D.
Dr. Crawford is an Associate Professor of Neurology and Pediatrics at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine.  He is co-director of the MDA clinic for Neuromuscular Disorders.  His practice involves general child neurology with a principal interest in caring for children with neuromuscular, neuromotor, and ataxic disorders. His primary research interests involve the basic science and clinical characterization of two important neurologic disorders that affect children: SMA and Ataxia Telangiectasia. He joined the SAB in 2002.  Please click here to see his web page at Johns Hopkins University.

Mark Gurney, Ph.D., M.B.A.
Dr. Gurney is Senior Vice President, Drug Discovery and Development at deCODE genetics, Inc. He was formerly Director of Genomics Research at Pharmacia Corporation. Prior to his position at Pharmacia, Dr. Gurney held academic appointments in the Department of Pharmacological and Physiological Sciences at the University of Chicago and in the Department of Cell, Molecular, and Structural Biology at the Northwestern University Medical School.  He has had a long and continuing interest in neurodegenerative diseases, having developed one of the first animal models of motor neuron disease. He joined the SAB in 2003.  Please click here to see his biography on the deCODE Genetics webpage. 

Douglas Kerr, M.D., Ph.D.
Dr. Kerr is an Associate Professor at Johns Hopkins Medical School in the Department of Neurology with a joint appointment in the Department of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology. Dr. Kerr is also the Director of the Johns Hopkins Transverse Myelitis Center. Dr. Kerr investigates neural stem cells as a potential tool for functional recovery in patients with motor neuron disease, such as SMA.  Kerr joined the SAB in 2005.  Please click here to see his webpage at Johns Hopkins University.

Adrian Krainer, Ph.D.
Dr. Krainer is a Professor at the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory.  His research interests include unraveling the mechanisms controlling pre-mRNA splicing, including in genetic diseases such as SMA.  He is a leading expert in this area with over 100 research articles published to date.  Dr. Krainer joined the SAB in 2005.  Please click here to see his web site at Cold Spring Harbor Lab.

Brian Pollok, Ph.D.
Dr. Pollok serves as Chief Scientific Officer and Head of Global R&D for  LIfe Technologies (formerly Invitrogen Corporation).  Dr. Pollok has been with Invitrogen since November 2003, previously serving as Vice President of R&D for the company’s Drug Discovery Sciences unit.  He also served as Vice President of Discovery Biology at Aurora Biosciences, as a Sr. Research Investigator at Pfizer Central Research in Groton, CT, and as an Assistant Professor of Microbiology and Immunology at Wake Forest University.  Please click here to see his biography on the LIfe Technologies webpage.

Louise Simard, Ph.D.
Dr. Simard is Professor and Head of the Department of Biochemistry & Medical Genetics at the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg, Canada. Dr. Simard’s group demonstrated that SMN protein is abundant in neuronal growth cones, and most recently they have published work on the use of SMN mRNA as a biomarker in SMA clinical trials. She joined the SAB in 2005.

Stephen Strittmatter, M,D., PhD.
Dr. Strittmatter is the Vincent Coates Professor of Neurology and Neurobiology at Yale University School of Medicine. Dr. Strittmatter is a leading expert in the molecular mechanisms of axon regeneration in the adult CNS and periphery, including after spinal cord injury, publishing over 100 research articles in these fields.  Dr. Strittmatter joined the SAB in 2005.  Please click here to see his Yale University webpage. 

Kathryn Swoboda, M.D.
Dr. Swoboda is an Associate Professor of Neurology and Pediatrics at the University of Utah School of Medicine, and Director of the Pediatric Motor Disorders Clinic at Primary Children’s Medical Center in Salt Lake City, Utah. The primary focus of her work is to better understand the pathophysiology contributing to muscle weakness in children with SMA and to help facilitate the rapid translation of new therapies for treatment trials.  She joined the SAB in 2002. Please click here to see her website at the University of Utah.