ALS Study Results Will Help Guide Clinical Trial Design

Results from a natural history study for familial (inherited) ALS caused by a mutation in the SOD1 gene have confirmed that a variation of the mutation called SOD1 A4V is associated with a more aggressive disease course when compared to non A4V SOD1 ALS. A variety of mutations in the gene for the SOD1 protein account . . .

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Mitsubishi Tanabe Seeks Approval in U.S. for Edaravone to Treat ALS

Osaka-based Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma reported on June 20 that it has submitted a New Drug Application (NDA) to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, seeking marketing approval of its drug edaravone to treat people with ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis). The Japanese pharmaceutical company’s NDA submission marks one of its first steps in establishing a presence in . . .

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Five Questions with ALS Researcher Kim Staats

Kim Staats, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, was awarded an MDA development grant totaling $180,000 over a period of three years to study potential causes for sporadic amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Using a cutting-edge approach to identify genetic contributors in sporadic ALS, Staats has found a new gene . . .

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An Intimate Look at a Life with ALS: Photos of a Marriage, a Family and — of Course — Love

Editor’s note:  Ray Spooner, a certified nurse midwife, who has ushered thousands of babies into the world, was diagnosed with ALS just a few months after dousing himself in the Ice Bucket Challenge of Summer 2014. An avid cyclist and fitness enthusiast, Ray knew he had little time before his physical capabilities would be taken from him. Shortly . . .

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Five Questions with ALS Researcher Kathrin Meyer

Kathrin Meyer, a postdoctoral researcher at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio, was awarded an MDA development grant totaling $180,000 over three years to study the roles of cell types other than motor neurons in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Please describe your current research. For a long time, ALS research focused mainly on the motor . . .

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Five Questions with ALS Researcher Evangelos Kiskinis

Evangelos Kiskinis, assistant professor in the department of neurology & physiology at Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern School of Medicine in Chicago, was awarded an MDA research grant totaling $300,000 over three years to decipher the degree of mechanistic overlap in different forms of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Using cutting-edge technology, Kiskinis will activate ALS . . .

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The Ride of Their Life

For the founders of the ALS Bike Trek in Minnesota, the event is so much more than just a ride in the park. Founder Justin Rumley lost his dad, Steve, to ALS in 2009. Rett Landers’s brother, Jim, passed from Lou Gehrig’s disease on Thanksgiving in 2008. And Everett Myers’s father, Victor, died just 26 . . .

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