The ALS Association Research Program

The Leader in Global ALS Research

The ALS Association has committed more than $67 million to find effective treatments and a cure for Lou Gehrig’s Disease. Our global research effort has helped increase the number of scientists working on ALS, advanced new discoveries and treatments, and has shed light on the complex genetic and environmental factors involved in ALS.  

The ALS Association has funded significant research milestones in the fight against ALS, including:

• The groundbreaking discovery of a genetic abnormality that is, to date, the most common cause known of ALS and FTD.
• The recent exciting finding involved in familial ALS shows how two proteins work together to buttress the survival of motor neurons.
• Discovery of the ALS gene, SOD1, responsible for 20 percent of all inherited ALS cases.
• Discovery of ALS6 in 2009, a new gene responsible for about 5% of all inherited ALS cases.
• The first clinical trial of ISIS-SOD1, a new drug that specifically targets the SOD1 gene.