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Kleiner Family Honored at Project ALS Gala

Carol Kleiner, wife, mother of three, rower, and resident of Blue Bell, PA, was honored at the nineteenth annual Project ALS Gala: Tomorrow is Tonight, on October 25th, 2017 at Cipriani Wall Street in Manhattan. The event was attended by over 400 guests and raised over $1 million for ALS research.
“Carol Kleiner, along with her husband Bob, and children Meredith, Jennifer, and Andrew, are an inspiration. Their work ethic, bravery and generosity have pushed Project ALS research to new heights. They have united their entire community in the fight against ALS. We felt their family was more than deserving of this honor” said Meredith Estess, Project ALS president.
Carol was diagnosed with ALS in September 2013 and has since raised over $2 million for Project ALS through multiple fundraising events, including Carol’s Crew, an initiative made up of Carol’s rowing friends, and A Date With a Plate, a cocktail party debuting intricately decorated table settings by top designers.
Carol and her family created the Kleiner Family Initiative at Project ALS which has funded an ALS pre-clinical core at Columbia University, the first dedicated effort among academic research centers to rapidly and thoroughly test promising drugs before they reach ALS human clinical trial. The core will ultimately provide doctors with more effective therapeutic options for people with ALS.
Co-directors of the pre-clinical core are Dr. Serge Przeborski, a leading neurologist and expert in ALS and Parkinson’s pathology, and Dr. Hynek Wichterle, a pioneer in stem cell biology and ALS. Currently, the pre-clinical core is testing three promising compounds: alsterpaullone, AR-12 (Arno Therapeutics), and AMX0035 (Amylyx). Drs. Przedbosrski and Wichterle and their team have assembled a predictive panel of laboratory tests to measure for such outcomes as optimal dose and delivery, brain penetrance, and, ultimately, efficacy.
“Project ALS has their thumbs on the pulse of current research. I have never seen an organization bring nascent ideas to clinical trial so quickly. It has not been hard for Carol and me to conclude that Project ALS is worthy of our commitment” said Bob Kleiner.
The Kleiners came to Project ALS through friends Cori Miller and David Jaffe. Jaffe is on the Board of Directors of Project ALS. A short documentary video of the Kleiner family was featured at the Project ALS Gala last week and Bob Kleiner spoke to the audience about Carol’s experience with ALS and Project ALS.
Watch a video of the Kleiner family:

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