Research Matters.
ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, is a neurodegenerative disease that is closely related to Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and Huntington’s. In ALS, as motor neurons die, a person progressively loses the ability to walk, speak, swallow, and breathe.
Project ALS is working to develop the first effective treatments.
Finding Cures at the Core
The Project ALS Therapeutics Core (the Core) is the world’s first and only partnership between a world-class academic institution and a leading nonprofit organization dedicated to a full-spectrum approach to ALS drug development. Our goal is to develop the first effective treatments, and ultimately, a cure for ALS.
The Core provides an immensely exciting opportunity to capitalize on decades of ALS advances and translate them into meaningful treatments now.
Closing in On A Cure
Since 1998, Project ALS has led research across the fields of stem cell biology, genetics, drug screening, and clinical trials at over 30 leading academic institutions.
Having received permission from the US Food & Drug Administration to initiate a Phase I clinical trial of prosetin in 2021, the first people are dosed at Worldwide Clinical Trials in Texas. In collaboration with Medical Excellence Capital, Project ALS launches ProJenX, a clinical-stage biotechnology company developing novel, brain-penetrant therapies targeting biologically-defined pathways for the treatment of ALS and other debilitating brain diseases.
Project ALS announces new Research Advisory Board representing a range of experience and expertise across the fields of neuroscience, clinical research, drug development, and technology
Project ALS sponsored pilot program results in initiation of Phase 3 clinical trial of ION363 (also known as jacifusen)—a novel antisense oligonucleotide (ASO) for ALS patients with a mutation in the fused in sarcoma (FUS) gene—by Ionis Pharmaceuticals. In 2019, Jaci Hermstad received the first ever dose of jacifusen, a custom antisense oligonucleotide gene therapy to address Jaci’s genetic form of ALS. Read the full press release here.
Project ALS launches research partnership with Medidata Institute, targeting new, actionable insights into ALS disease progression and subtypes. This multidisciplinary research effort brings together leading academic researchers with Medidata’s cutting-edge technology toward understanding, and successfully treating ALS.
Having begun as the Pre-Clinical Core in 2017, the Project ALS Therapeutics Core at Columbia University (the Core) is the world’s first and only partnership between a world-class academic institution and a leading nonprofit organization dedicated to a full-spectrum approach to ALS drug development. The Core unites Columbia’s ALS experts—scientists and doctors who are attacking the disease from all angles—to focus their efforts on establishing better therapeutic options for people with ALS. Read the full press release here.
Project ALS kicked off the ALS Living Library at Massachusetts General Hospital. Dr. James Berry directs the efforts to catalog, characterize and share with researchers, data from samples donated by ALS patients. Learn more here.
Autophagy in ALS begins, a three-year study connecting researchers from Columbia, Cornell, UCSF, NYU and NY Genome Center. Drugs identified by the Autophagy Team are fed in to the Pre-Clinical Core for ALS Drug Testing at the Motor Neuron Center (Columbia). Learn more about their progress here.
Project ALS and the Robert Packard Center for ALS Research at Johns Hopkins University announced a $15 million partnership Dan Doctoroff and Michael Bloomberg to to advance ALS research exponentially over the next three years. Read the full press release here.
Researchers at the Project ALS/Jenifer Estess Laboratory for Stem Cell Research, Columbia University, and Harvard University derive motor neurons from ALS patient skin. This achievement is later named Time magazine’s Medical Breakthrough of the Year.
The Project ALS/Jenifer Estess Laboratory for Stem Cell Research opens. It is the world’s first and only privately funded lab to focus exclusively on stem cells and ALS. In this same year, the Estess Lab team derives the first functional human motor neurons from stem cells.
Scientists at Columbia University differentiate mouse stem cells into functional motor neurons, the very brain cells destroyed in ALS.
The Project ALS team at Mass General Hospital builds the first standardized cell based-assay for rapid ALS drug testing. Pilot studies in stems cells and ALS also begin at Children’s Hospital Boston and Johns Hopkins.
25 Years of Research Progress
Want to learn more about Project ALS research? Catch up on episodes of Project ALS Research Live where we talk to special guests about critical ALS research.
4/24/2023
Our First Family
Mickey McGrath was a beloved husband, father, and doctor. Following his ALS diagnosis, Mickey and his family rallied their community in support of Project ALS research. Erin and Valerie speak with Mickey’s daughters, Nicole and Melissa, about their father’s life with ALS and how their community has continued to champion Project ALS in honor of their dad for more than 20 years.
3/28/2023
Sea Of Plenty
Erin and Valerie are joined by pre-eminent ALS geneticist and a founding Project ALS Research Advisory Board member, Robert H. Brown Jr., DPhil, MD, to talk about when Project ALS met Dr. Brown, and his wise words that encouraged Project ALS cofounders to relentlessly work towards better treatments for ALS.
2/23/2023
The Learning Curve
Erin and Valerie are joined by Alexandra Cavaliere and Gwen Petersen of Her ALS Story to discuss some difficult, but necessary, topics, including the road to an ALS diagnosis, participating in clinical trials, and what the future of ALS research looks like.
1/26/2023
The Beginning Years
Leading neurologist and neuroscientist, Dr. Jeffrey Rothstein, diagnosed Project ALS founder Jenifer Estess at the age of 35. He then became a founding crusader for collaborative Project ALS research. Dr. Jeffrey Rothstein and Project ALS president Meredith Estess join Valerie Estess and Erin Fleming for an intimate discussion about the beginning years of Project ALS, why it was created, and what we’re doing now.
Help Us Fuel the Core Research Engine
Groundbreaking ALS Research Is Happening Right Now Because of You.
Core Leadership
Scientific Codirectors
Serge Przedborski, MD, PhD
Neil Shneider, MD, PhD
Hynek Wichterle, PhD
Director of Operations
Emily Lowry, PhD
Unit Directors
Jinsy Andrews, MD, MSc
Estela Area Gomez, PhD
Susan Brenner Morton
Francesco Lotti, PhD
Emily Lowry, PhD
George Z. Mentis, PhD
Director of Research
Valerie Estess
Associate Director of Research Operations
Margot Shanahan
Research Consultant
Erin Fleming
