Thousands use Twitter to voice support for Spinal Muscular Atrophy research

(Santa Barbara, CA) – Millions of people ‘Tweet’ every day, and Bill Strong knew there had to be a way to harness all of that online talk to help end spinal muscular atrophy, a disease that is affecting him very personally. With a Twitter application called ‘Tweet for a Cure’ and the help of thousands of Twitter users, he’s making progress in his quest to find a cure.

Bill and Victoria Strong’s daughter, Gwendolyn (seen to the right), was diagnosed with spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) at the age of six months. SMA is a neuromuscular disease that causes weakness and wasting of the muscles. In the most severe cases, it can rob its victims of the ability to crawl, sit, walk, breathe, eat, talk, or even smile. SMA is the leading genetic killer of children under two...