Margarida Azevedo, MSc,  —

Two brothers will travel across the U.S. to raise money for Project ALS to support a project testing a promising drug in people with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Mike Devlin, a 27-year-old ultramarathon runner, will begin his 100-day run in San Francisco on April 15. Mike will run 3,000 miles across America, and…

Preclinical testing will soon begin in VY-SOD101, a compound seen as a potential treatment for a certain gene mutation found in people with familial amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).  Its developer,  Voyager Therapeutics, hopes to follow this work, if successful, with clinical trials in patients  in about two years. Patients with ALS typically develop weakness…

Masitinib met its main Phase 2 and 3 clinical trial goal of improving the functioning of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) patients, according to its maker, AB Science SA. The randomized, double-blind AB10015 (NCT02588677) trial compared the effectiveness and safety of a combination of masitinib and riluzole with a combination of…

Orangetheory Fitness and its franchises raised more than $2 million in two weeks for Augie’s Quest, a foundation dedicated to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) research. Thanks to the support of its franchise owners, coaches, studio staff and more than 430,000 members across the U.S., Orangetheory Fitness was able to more…

The ALS Association is urging Congress to pass legislation that would waive the Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) five-month waiting period for patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Under the ALS Disability Insurance Access Act of 2017, people with ALS could immediately begin receiving SSDI, which in turn qualifies patients to get…

An eight-week mindfulness-based meditation program improved the quality of life and psychological well-being of patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), a study reported. The randomized, open-label, controlled clinical trial covered 100 patients recruited between November 2012 and December 2014. All were diagnosed with ALS at least 18 months before the…

People who eat fish and seafood containing high concentrations of mercury may be more likely to develop amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), a new preliminary study suggests. Researchers will present their study’s findings at the American Academy of Neurology’s 69th Annual Meeting, set for April 22-28 in Boston. The question isn’t whether people should…

People who have amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) know how hard it can be to communicate, but a new app developed by Microsoft researchers, called GazeSpeak, may make speaking with the eyes a reality. GazeSpeak, to be unveiled in May at the Conference on Human Factors in Computing…

The fitness franchise Orangetheory Fitness has partnered with Augie’s Quest to raise $1 million over the next two weeks for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) research. During the campaign (#IBurnForALS) — which lasts from February 20 to March 5 — more than 570 Orangetheory studios nationwide will encourage their members…

Two French researchers, Martine Barkats and Maria-Grazia Biferi, are winners of the Avi Kremer ALS Treatment Prize, worth $1 million, for developing a gene therapy approach that shows promise in treating certain types of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), Prize4Life announced in a recent press release. The approach targets one of the…