Research conducted throughout the Indiana University campus system continues to affect lives of people around the globe.

Spotlight Innovation Inc., based in West Des Moines, Iowa, has licensed technology from Indiana University Research and Technology Corp. that could potentially treat Spinal Muscular Atrophy. SMA affects between 1 in 6,000 and 1 in 10,000 newborns. An infant who develops SMA may lose the ability to sit, stand, walk, swallow, and/or breathe.

Dr. Elliot Androphy of Indiana University School of Medicine and Professor Kevin Hodgetts, director of the Laboratory for Drug Discovery in Neurodegeneration at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, collaborated to create the treatment, a small molecule called STL-182.

More information about SMA, STL-182 and Spotlight Innovation is available here.