DOVER — Dr. Jianli Sun, a Delaware State University researcher, has been awarded a three-year, $400,839 grant from the National Institutes of Health for his studies into spinal muscular atrophy, the leading genetic cause of infant mortality.
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DOVER — Dr. Jianli Sun, a Delaware State University researcher, has been awarded a three-year, $400,839 grant from the National Institutes of Health for his studies into spinal muscular atrophy, the leading genetic cause of infant mortality.
Dr. Sun, who is the director of the Cell Electrophysiology Core Facility at the university’s Delaware Institute for Science and Technology, will use the funding to compare the brains of mice that have the mutated gene that leads to SMA with brains of normal mice.
His hypothesis is that, in SMA, alterations in the neurons and neural circuits of the cerebellum decrease cerebellar output and alter descending motor commands to the spinal cord, contributing to neuropathology and motor system dysfunction. Uncovering the neuropathology in the brain of SMA may lead to strategies in effective treatment.
Dr. Christine Charvet, a former assistant professor of psychology at DSU, is a co-investigator on the research.
