ORPHA:572773
Microcephaly-short stature-limb abnormalities syndrome
Also known as: MISSLA
Query health: suspect — Only one of 2 strategies returned hits (phrase).
Publications
18
32.9th percentile
Trials
0
Interventional, condition-specific
Researchers
169
Distinct authors in sample
Gene link
DONSON
Strong
Readiness
2/6
Stages with a signal
Clinical definition (Orphanet)
A rare genetic multiple anomalies syndrome characterized by severe microcephaly, intrauterine growth retardation, short stature and variable limb anomalies such as radial ray defects, short limbs, absent/hypoplastic patellae, syndactyly, brachydactyly and hypoplastic carpal or metacarpal bones. Craniofacial dysmorphism is characterized by long and broad nose, microstomia and micrognathia. is mild when present. Cases with extremely severe with very short limbs and poor lung development are perinatally lethal.
How rare: <1 / 1 000 000 — fewer than one in a million. In a city the size of Kolkata, that might mean on the order of fifteen people.
Cross-references
Joined from Mondo / Orphanet. MeSH labels may enter searches; UMLS / OMIM / NCIT are stored for reference.
- MONDO:0060533
- OMIM:617604
- UMLS:C4539873
Additional Mondo synonyms (1)
microcephaly, short stature, and limb abnormalities
Research stages
Trial readiness signals
Where this condition sits on an open-data research pipeline — not how close a treatment is, and not medical advice. Empty stages often mean “not in these databases under this Mondo ID,” not “impossible.”
2/6 stages with a signal
No matched interventional trial; the gene is known and literature exists — preclinical or natural-history work may still be the practical next step.
- Gene identifiedPresent
Strong — DONSON
- LiteraturePresent
18 matched papers (15 in last 10 years) Source
- Phenotype characterisedNot checked
Not yet enriched from Monarch / HPO
- Animal modelNot checked
Not yet enriched from Monarch / Alliance
- Orphan designationNot checked
FDA/EMA orphan-drug designation not enriched yet
- Interventional trialNot found
No matched interventional trial under our ClinicalTrials.gov rules
Biology
Genes and phenotypes
Gene–disease validity from GenCC, plus phenotypes and animal models joined from Monarch Initiative via Mondo ID — not a clinical diagnosis aid.
Do we know what causes it?
Yes — we know a specific gene responsible (DONSON).
GenCC classification: Strong.
Phenotypes (Monarch / HPO)
Not enriched in this build — Monarch phenotype joins were not run for this record.
Animal models (Monarch / Alliance)
Not enriched in this build.
Literature
Is anyone studying this?
18
18 papers have ever been indexed under this name. For scale, breast cancer has over 700,000. Median papers in the last 10 years for a rare disease in this dataset (publications denominator n=5449) is 41.
18 papers since the earliest indexed year in this search — median last-10-year count for a rare disease in this dataset is 41 (publications denominator n=5449).
15 in the last 10 years · high confidence · 32.9th percentile (publications denominator)
Phrase hits: 18 · MeSH hits: 0
Who's working on it?
169
Distinct author names in 18 sampled papers — named people below.
Who's working on it?
No interventional trial matched this name; these authors publish on it in the sampled literature — a practical starting point for contact.
- 01Schulz S3 papers · 2021
Institute of Pharmacology and Toxicology, Jena University Hospital, Jena, Germany.
Papers in Europe PMC - 02Bicknell LS2 papers · 2023
Department of Pathology, Dunedin School of Medicine, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand louise.bicknell@otago.ac.nz.
Papers in Europe PMC - 03Gezdirici A2 papers · 2020
Department of Medical Genetics, Kanuni Sultan Suleyman Training and Research Hospital, Istanbul, Turkey.
Papers in Europe PMC - 04Jackson AP2 papers · 2023
MRC Human Genetics Unit, Institute of Genetics and Cancer, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, EH4 2XU, UK.
Papers in Europe PMC - 05Mensah MA2 papers · 2019
Charité-Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin and Berlin Institute of Health, Institute of Medical Genetics and Human Genetics, Berlin, Germany.
Papers in Europe PMC - 06Mundlos S2 papers · 2023
Institut für medizinische Genetik und Humangenetik, Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Berlin, Germany.
Papers in Europe PMC - 07Sutton VR2 papers · 2023
Department of Molecular & Human Genetics, Baylor College of Medicine & Texas Children's Hospital, Houston, Texas, USA.
Papers in Europe PMC - 08Abdelrahman HA1 paper · 2019
Department of Pathology, United Arab Emirates University, Al Ain, UAE.
Papers in Europe PMC - 09Abdulwahab F1 paper · 2023
Department of Translational Genomics, Center for Genomic Medicine, King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Center, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Papers in Europe PMC - 10Abe P1 paper · 2021
Institute of Pharmacology and Toxicology, Jena University Hospital, Jena, Germany.
Papers in Europe PMC
Clinical research
Is a treatment being tested?
0
interventional trials for this specific condition
No interventional trial testing a treatment matched this specific condition name on ClinicalTrials.gov (observational studies and pan-disease registries are listed separately when present).
Data as of 27 July 2026
No matched interventional trials. This is true for 73% of diseases in the trials denominator (5114 of 7003). Here are the researchers publishing on it.
high confidence · 36.5th percentile (trials denominator)
Recruiting interventional trials
From the matched ClinicalTrials.gov set
No interventional trial testing a treatment was found for this specific condition name on ClinicalTrials.gov.
See who's working on it — people publishing on this disease are often the practical next contact when no trial is listed.
Where to find support
We do not yet link condition-specific patient organisations. These umbrella groups support undiagnosed and ultra-rare families:
India — NPRD
Last verified 2026-07-26This ORPHAcode is not on our curated NPRD list (direct or Mondo-parent match). That does not decide clinical eligibility; families in India should ask a notified Centre of Excellence about current coverage.
Hand-curated for this project. ORPHAcode mappings are best-effort and may be incomplete or imprecise for umbrella categories. Parent (Mondo) matches mean the policy lists a broader category — confirm eligibility with a Centre of Excellence. Financial entitlements summarised from public policy statements and may change. This is not official government guidance.
How we counted this
Europe PMC query (preferred label + any corrected label + Orphanet and Mondo exact synonyms, stoplisted; unioned with resolved MeSH labels when available). UMLS / OMIM / NCIT cross-references are stored on the overview but are not added to the query string.
"Microcephaly-short stature-limb abnormalities syndrome" OR "MISSLA" OR "microcephaly, short stature, and limb abnormalities"
ClinicalTrials.gov query (quoted phrases + MeSH via query.cond, plus recall-expansion terms when used):
"Microcephaly-short stature-limb abnormalities syndrome" OR "MISSLA" OR "microcephaly, short stature, and limb abnormalities" OR "DONSON"
Recall-expansion terms: DONSON
Study-type breakdown: 0 interventional · 0 observational · 0 expanded access. Only interventional studies enter the trial headline.
Query health: suspect — strategies attempted: phrase, recall-expansion; with hits: phrase
Run this search on ClinicalTrials.gov
Confidence reasoning
- Preferred label is multi-word and distinctive
- No synonyms dropped by stoplist
- No label/synonym collisions with other diseases in this corpus
Ingested 2026-07-27T18:33:43.629Z