ISU's gene breakthrough key to advancing spinal muscular atrophy research

Catch up fast: SMA affects voluntary muscle movement.

• A missing or mutated gene causes the disease and, in severe cases, leaves children with an average two-year lifespan.

Driving the news: ISU professor Ravindra Singh led an eight-year project to create the truncated version of the gene, with its results recently published in academic journal Nucleic Acids Research.

State of play: Isolated segments have been used in studies for decades but ISU's breakthrough — which Singh's team calls a "super minigene" — represents the entire gene.

• Now scientists can make mutations and quickly see what happens everywhere in the gene sequence, Singh told ISU's news service.

The intrigue: His work was also instrumental in the first federally approved treatment for SMA.