Institutions love silos; revolutions love transparency. For generations, medical research operated under its own kind of feudalism, where laboratories functioned like closed fiefdoms, guarding discoveries behind proprietary gates and expensive paywalls. In 2014, Steve Gleason, a former professional football player living with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, decided to challenge that entrenched complacency. He convened a historic…
Moonshine Flats is a country bar in San Diego’s Gaslamp Quarter, the kind of place that books live bands on Saturday nights and pours copious amounts of bourbon for tourists. On March 9 it served a different purpose altogether. Nearly 100 members of the aviation community filled the venue during the International Society of Transport…
Magic usually involves smoke and mirrors, but the researchers filling the Four Seasons Hotel ballroom in Baltimore for Answer ALS’s “IgNight: Where the Magic of Collaboration Meets the Power of Science” on March 1 proved that the most impressive tricks involve data, cloud computing, artificial intelligence, and scientists who won’t take impossible for an answer….
Platform tennis prioritizes aggression. It is a sweat-covered game played inside a wire cage while winter winds cut across the aluminum decking. Jim Marvel knows this dynamic better than anyone. He serves as a key organizer for the region and frequently directs major events like the Kansas City Open Men’s National Ranking Tournament. He understands…
A digital holiday card of gratitude. Many thanks and Happy Holidays to all.
Answer ALS is deeply alarmed and disappointed by Congress’ passage of the Full-Year Continuing Appropriations Act, which includes devastating cuts to ALS research funding. For years, funding for ALS research has grown steadily thanks to bipartisan support and the tireless efforts of the ALS community. These hard-fought increases have fueled groundbreaking progress in understanding ALS,…
ALS Motor Neurons Differ by Sex, Study Finds. A new Cedars-Sinai study in collaboration with the University of California, Irvine (UCI) and the Answer ALS consortium has examined the expression of thousands of genes in stem cell-generated motor neurons that are known to die in patients with ALS. The study, published in the peer-reviewed journal…
Microsoft is investing $1 million in cloud-computing resources for the nonprofit, which will make the huge repository of valuable data openly available to researchers around the globe. Maybe, Joel Shamaskin thought, he was working too many hours, not getting enough sleep. That wouldn’t have been unusual for the longtime primary care doctor at the University…
October 11, 2017 – Last week at the 2017 Annual NEALS Meeting, Answer ALS researchers presented updates on the initiative to the ALS research community. Those updates included some unprecedented efforts in the strategy to find answers and solutions to ALS. “When Answer ALS was envisioned and ultimately organized, we wanted the entire research community,…
Recent developments have given researchers real optimism that advances in treatment could be on the horizon—at last. For Michael Tsun, the first sign of trouble came late in 2012, when the Fairfax County, Virginia, resident began feeling pain in his shoulders and around his buttocks. Soon thereafter, Tsun and his physician took aim at polymyalgia rheumatica…
Data & TechnologyHarnessing Big Data with Advanced Analytics Neuromine is one of the world’s most robust and comprehensive ALS data resources, integrating multi-omics, clinical, and cellular datasets, while also linking to coordinating iPSC lines, biosamples, and other large-scale data platforms with analytic tools to maximize discovery and collaboration.
Multi-Omnics AnalysisComprehensive Biological Data Integration Making a comprehensive multi-omics datasets available that integrates genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, epigenomics, and iPSC-derived motor neuron data that is freely accessible for analysis.
IPS Cells & Motor NeuronsGenerated 1,000 Participant-Derived Cell Lines Learn More about how to access 1,000 iPSC lines through our partners at the Cedars-Sinai Biomanufacturing Center
Clinic & enrollmentLeading Clinics Engaged to Complete Enrollment Enrollment in the Answer ALS program is complete, but you can Learn More about connected programs like Champion Insights, ALS Therapy Development’s ARC Program
