Dr. John Ravits, Professor of Clinical Neurosciences and Head of the ALS Translational Research Program at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) is a physician-scientist at the forefront of ALS thought and research of sporadic and familial ALS. Yesterday, at the 69th Annual American Academy of Neurology (AAN) Meeting in Boston, he was presented the prestigious 2017 Sheila Essey Award by Dick Essey, founder of the award named in honor of his wife Sheila who battled with ALS for ten years and died from the disease in 2004.

The ALS Association today announced the election of Stephen Winthrop as Chair of The ALS Association Board of Trustees. Stephen was diagnosed with ALS in 2013 and joined the Board in 2015. He replaces Doug Butcher, who will remain a member of the Board.

Families living with ALS are faced with a whole host of everyday challenges that can become a burden over time. The ALS Association created the Care Connection program to provide support to meet families’ needs to ultimately alleviate stress. Learn more about this extraordinary program and all the help it delivers.

Today, we are happy to feature Dr. Nicholas Olney, this year’s recipient of the prestigious Clinical Research Training Fellowship in ALS Research Award given in partnership with the American Academy of Neurology (AAN). Dr. Olney is currently working on an ALS biomarker project aimed at developing clinical markers of disease progression, a major unmet need in ALS, at the University of California at San Francisco (UCSF) School of Medicine under the mentorship of Drs. Howard Rosen, Cathy Lomen-Hoerth and Bruce Miller.

Last month, Dr. Leonard Petrucelli at Mayo Clinic Jacksonville in Florida and colleagues reported discovering a new ALS biomarker that specifically detects a protein made by the C9orf72 expansion, the most common inherited cause of ALS. Their results are crucial to complement an upcoming clinical trial testing antisense drugs targeting the C9orf72 expansion. The ALS Association supported this study, including funding to bright, young scientists that significantly contributed to this project – past and current Milton Safenowitz Postdoctoral Fellows, Drs. Tania Gendron, Marka van Blitterswijk, Veronique Belzil, Mercedes Prudencio from the Mayo Clinic Jacksonville and Clinical Research Fellow, Dr. Lindsey Hayes from Johns Hopkins University. The paper with Drs. Tania Gendron, Jeannie Chew, Jeannette Stankowski and Lindsey Hayes as co-first authors, along with 78 contributing researchers, was featured on the Science Translational Medicine front cover of the March 29th issue, which is a great scientific honor.

More than 500 people have already registered for the 2017 National ALS Advocacy Conference and time is running out to sign up. This conference is an annual opportunity for our advocates – people living with ALS, their families, friends, doctors and researchers – to share the ALS story and let Members of Congress know the true nature of the disease and why it is important to take action immediately.

Today, we welcome a guest scientist blogger, Dr. Sandrine Da Cruz from University of California San Diego (UCSD). She, along with her colleagues, just published an important paper that looks into how SOD1 misfolding, the second most common inherited cause of ALS, impacts sporadic ALS (SALS).

Last night, WCVB, the Boston ABC affiliate, featured a half-hour show called “Unlocking ALS,” highlighting all the great work coming out of the Boston area in the fight against ALS. The show did a wonderful job covering all the progress that has occurred since the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge (ALS IBC), an organic online movement that catapulted ALS into the spotlight while raising $220 million worldwide.

Last week, AB Science announced that the Masitinib phase 2/3 clinical trial reached its primary endpoint of ALSFRS-R in people living with ALS. Currently, the company has applied for conditional marketing approval to the European Medicines Agency (EMA) in Europe and is sharing results with officials at the Federal Drug Administration (FDA) to decide next steps in the U.S.

The Association is pleased to continue on the tradition of supporting bright, young scientists in ALS research through the Milton Safenowitz Postdoctoral Fellowship Program. This year, we are supporting six new postdoctoral fellows out of a highly competitive applicant pool. In this series, we highlight the dedication and unique contribution each fellow makes to ALS research. Today, we feature Dr. Amanda Gleixner from the University of Pittsburgh.

The Association is pleased to continue on the tradition of supporting bright, young scientists in ALS research through the Milton Safenowitz Postdoctoral Fellowship Program. This year, we are supporting six new postdoctoral fellows out of a highly competitive applicant pool. In this series, we highlight the dedication and unique contribution each fellow makes to ALS research. Today, we feature Dr. Vicente Valenzuela from University of Chile.

This week, former San Francisco 49ers receiver Dwight Clark announced he has ALS. He joins other NFL football greats including Steve Gleason, Tim Shaw, Kevin Turner, O.J. Brigance, and others, who have been diagnosed with ALS following their pro football careers. These announcements have brought much attention to the connection between football and traumatic brain injury (TBI) and the question of whether such injuries from football can lead to ALS or chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE). Here, we highlight some research behind the possible connection.

In late-February 2017, The ALS Association announced the release of 11 new Living with ALS resource guides on our website, www.alsa.org. The guides were designed to inform and educate people about ALS in a comprehensive and easily understood format, addressing many of the common concerns and issues that face people living with ALS.

Former San Francisco 49ers receiver Dwight Clark, best known for his leaping catch in the end zone to help the 49ers win the 1982 NFC Championship game, announced on Sunday that he has ALS. Clark wrote a letter explaining his story.

The Association is pleased to continue on the tradition of supporting bright, young scientists in ALS research through the Milton Safenowitz Postdoctoral Fellowship Program. This year, we are supporting six new postdoctoral fellows out of a highly competitive applicant pool. In this series, we highlight the dedication and unique contribution each fellow makes to ALS research. Today, we feature Dr. Jeanne McKeon from University of Massachusetts Medical School.

The Association is pleased to continue on the tradition of supporting bright, young scientists in ALS research through the Milton Safenowitz Postdoctoral Fellowship Program. This year, we are supporting six new postdoctoral fellows out of a highly competitive applicant pool. In this series, we highlight the dedication and unique contribution each fellow makes to ALS research. Today, we feature Dr. Bruno Miguel da Cruz Godinho from University of Massachusetts Medical School.

Many of us here at The ALS Association are enormous fans of SpongeBob SquarePants. It has brought joy to millions of children – and adults – for a long time. So we were saddened to learn that SpongeBob creator Stephen Hillenburg has ALS, as he said in a statement to Variety.

This week, The ALS Association in partnership with ALS Finding a Cure® (ALSFAC) announced the $1 million winner of the TDP-43 Grand Challenge – a team led by Dr. Timothy Miller of Washington University in St. Louis, including Drs. Paul Kotzbauer, Vijay Sharma, Nigel Cairns and Yuna Ayala of Saint Louis University. The team is developing a unique imaging biomarker to track TDP-43, a protein found in almost all cases of ALS.

Research supported by The ALS Association has led to the discovery of a new and simple test to monitor disease progression in people with ALS and potentially to help evaluate drugs under investigation in ALS clinical trials.

The Association is pleased to continue on the tradition of supporting bright, young scientists in ALS research through the Milton Safenowitz Postdoctoral Fellowship Program. This year, we are supporting six new postdoctoral fellows out of a highly competitive applicant pool. In this series, we highlight the dedication and unique contribution each fellow makes to ALS research. Today, we feature Dr. Tiffany Todd from the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Fla.