The Milton Safenowitz Post-Doctoral Fellowship for ALS Research

Two Grants Awarded in August 2005

Two young investigators are joining the effort to find effective therapies for ALS, under an innovative program by The ALS Association funded by The Milton Safenowitz Post-Doctoral Fellowship for ALS Research.

In the battle against ALS, replacing the degenerating neurons is a promising treatment strategy. For this reason, an improved basic knowledge of how motor neurons form in the developing animal should aid in the search for a cure. Pursuing this line of investigation, Agnès Lukaszewicz, Ph.D., has been selected for The Milton Safenowitz Post-Doctoral Fellowship for ALS Research. She and her mentor, David Anderson, Ph.D., at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena have been working out how motor neurons arise in a region of the developing spinal cord. This region produces the cells that specialize to become the motor neurons. As these cells take on their specialized roles, they activate genes to make the proteins that will be involved in sending nerve fibers out to connect to and control muscles. Lukaszewicz hopes to provide details of the molecular circuitry underlying how motor neurons are formed and how and when they innervate muscle. Knowledge obtained from these studies could potentially be applied to develop a treatment for ALS.

Motor neurons have fibers called axons that can extend up to a meter to the target muscle. Transmission of vital information and materials from nerve endings back to the cell body presents a daunting task for this cell. Scientists know that inhibition of axon transport damages nerves and shrivels muscles, presumably by halting the transport of key molecules along the axon. The specific signals in axon transport required to maintain healthy motor neurons have yet to be fully identified.   Eran Perlson, Ph.D., awarded The Milton Safenowitz Post-Doctoral Fellowship for ALS Research,  is working with mentor Erika L. F. Holzbaur, Ph.D., at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, to identify the crucial components of neuronal maintenance using a new approach called proteomics. Analysis of the players in the process of maintaining the motor neuron should lead to the identification of novel targets for therapeutic intervention in ALS.