The physical impact of living with ALS presents many challenges, especially as the disease progresses. With the help of assistive technologies, people living with ALS can maintain their independence and pursue their passions for as long as possible.
The type of care that people with ALS receive affects survival and quality of life. That is why the ALS Association is committing nearly $2 million over the next two years to support research focused on optimizing the effectiveness, efficiency, and accessibility of ALS care. These funds, granted through the new Quality of Care Research Awards, will be distributed across five projects that focus on the health and care for people living with the disease.
There is an urgent need for new and improved therapies for ALS, as there is still no cure. To help accelerate drug development and get promising treatments one step closer to regulatory evaluation, the ALS Association has committed nearly $4 million to support four early-stage clinical trials through our Hoffman ALS Clinical Trial Awards.
While the number of ALS clinical trials has greatly expanded over the last five years, the number of people living with ALS participating in this research remains low and highly variable across trial sites. Our five 2023 Trial Capacity Award winners are working hard to eliminate barriers to trial participation.
Learn about the five bright, young researchers from prestigious academic institutions across the country who have been selected to join The ALS Association’s 2023 Class of Milton Safenowitz Postdoctoral Fellows.
With the Food and Drug Administration’s approval of the first gene-targeted therapy for ALS – and at least nine more in clinical development – genetic counseling and testing has become increasingly important. However, genetic counseling and testing is still not routinely offered to people with ALS in the United States.
Dr. Agessandro Abrahao, a professor of neurology at the University of Toronto and a neurologist at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Center, spoke about a new partnership between The ALS Association and the Focus Ultrasound Foundation and his work as a focused ultrasound investigator at the Harquail Centre for Neuromodulation.
Leveraging more than $3 million in support from The ALS Association, researchers from UMass Chan Medical School, the National Institutes of Health and Emory University have developed a cloud-based central repository of genetic data related to ALS and frontotemporal dementia (FTD). ALS Compute compiles data from multiple large-scale initiatives into one easily accessible dataset that is far more powerful than any single dataset alone.
The ALS Association and The Association for Frontotemporal Degeneration (AFTD) are launching a research funding opportunity to support collaborative development of digital assessment tools for both ALS and frontotemporal degeneration (FTD).