The Steve Gleason Enduring Voices Act (S. 1132 and H.R. 2465), which would permanently fix the current Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) policy limiting access to Speech Generating Devices (SGD) for people with degenerative diseases, was included in the government funding package approved by the U.S. House of Representatives last night.
We wanted to clear up some misinformation floating around on social media regarding our research funding and our current assets. We also wanted to explain our approach to funding research.
Biogen has acquired KPT-350, a potential ALS therapeutic that has been investigated in preclinical trials to treat ALS by researchers funded by The ALS Association’s Lawrence and Isabel Barnett Drug Development Program and The Milton Safenowitz Postdoctoral Fellowship Program, Karyopharm Therapeutics recently announced. Biogen acquired KPT-350 in a $10 million up-front payment agreement with Karyopharm, a deal worth up to $217 million in future milestones, plus royalties, to treat neurodegenerative diseases.
In the summer of 2014, the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge inspired 17 million people to upload videos and raised $115 million for The ALS Association. Since then, The ALS Association has committed more than $94 million toward its mission, including over $82 million to fund research, and helped forge nine new global research collaborations.
A new educational resource from The ALS Association, Including the Multidisciplinary Team Approach in Your Care, is now available. The guide provides an overview of the multidisciplinary team approach to care, describes a typical clinic visit, and discusses additional options for care and support from providers outside of the core care team.
Andrew Rea, a New York-based chef, filmmaker, and host of the hugely popular YouTube cooking show “Binging with Babish,” was hit hard when his friend, Garmt van Soest, messaged him to say goodbye during his final days. On October 23, Garmt passed away from complications from ALS.
On December 13-14, 2017, 52 people gathered in Charlotte, N.C., to discuss how to increase awareness and participation in the National ALS Registry, the only population-based registry in the country collecting information to help scientists learn more about who gets ALS and its causes. Researchers use the Registry in their studies to find possible treatments and a cure.
Recent studies point to a possible connection between ALS and chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), the type of traumatic brain injury associated with playing football and other contact sports. NFL veterans Steve Gleason, Tim Shaw, O.J. Brigance, Dwight Clark, Kevin Turner, and others were diagnosed with ALS after their football careers ended. CTE has also been found in military veterans, who are twice as likely to be diagnosed with ALS.
New research published recently in the journal Nature Neuroscience provides a detailed analysis of TDP-43 aggregate composition and sheds important new insight on intracellular transport defects in ALS and other neurodegenerative diseases.
In January 2014, Terry Fiset, a retired attorney turned theater director, was having trouble speaking and wanted help. She met Andrea Caban, a voice, speech, and accent specialist and the head of Voice and Speech in the Department of Theatre Arts at California State University, Long Beach (CSULB).
In 2017, many new research discoveries and collaborations accelerated the momentum toward finding treatments and a cure for ALS. We helped lead the way by awarding several new grants to top scientists and clinicians. We currently fund over 126 projects in eight countries, furthering the best ALS research in the world.
We always enjoy our time at the annual events hosted by the International Alliance of ALS/MND Associations and the MND Association. This year was no exception. We listened, learned, networked, got inspired, caught up with old friends and colleagues, and so much more.
For families affected by ALS, the holiday season can bring painful reminders of what the disease has taken away. But, the season conjures as many (or more!) reminders of the love shared among family members.
Dr. Steven Finkbeiner of the Gladstone Institutes recently announced a research partnership with Eli Lilly and Company to move his ALS research forward. Dr. Finkbeiner is a member of California-based Neuro Collaborative, an ALS Association-funded initiative focused on discovering new ALS therapeutics and moving them into clinical trials. This multi-year, milestone-driven project is using innovative robotic microscope technology to focus on better understanding neurodegenerative diseases, with a large focus on ALS.
Your life can change in an instant. Carmen Berkley’s life did in 2015. She is one of the 6,000 people diagnosed with ALS each year. In the video below, Carmen shares with us what a visit to an ALS clinic is like for someone living with the disease.
Youth who help care for their loved ones with ALS are learning about important areas of ALS care – from physical therapy, occupational therapy, and speech therapy, to social work and neurology -- through YCare, an education and support program developed and directed by Dr. Melinda S. Kavanaugh, Assistant Professor of Social Work with the Helen Bader School of Social Welfare at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.
People living with ALS eventually lose the ability to speak to their loved ones and friends. In partnership with Prize4Life, we initiated the ALS Assistive Technology Challenge to improve the lives of people with ALS.
ALS is a severely debilitating disease that takes away a person’s ability to move, speak, swallow, and eventually breath. There is much to be accomplished to immediately enhance their quality of life. With this in mind, we sponsored an ALS Hackathon in partnership with Prize4Life to bring together bright, young students to brainstorm and quickly develop an assistive technology prototype.