When the End of Life Feels Imminent

We had a health scare a couple weeks ago, and I had to take our 8-year-old goldendoodle to the vet. Earlier in the week, Comet didn’t have his usual zip. Instead of eagerly greeting visitors, he stayed on his doggy bed. By Thursday evening of that week, Comet began…

The U.K. research organization LifeArc will match £500,000 (about $704,000) of the money raised by the director of the Leeds Rhinos’ rugby club in a series of marathons he ran to support research into amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and other motor neuron diseases. The match for this part…

“You shoot me glances and they’re so hard to read, I misconstrue what you mean. … Are you just playing, making passes? Well, my heart could use some glasses. … Do I read you correctly, I need you directly,…

Note: This story was updated Sept. 21, 2021, to note that 18% of patients, not 80%, experienced increases in the MUNIX(4) sum score at some point during the study. Participants in a placebo-controlled Phase 2 clinical trial of CNM-Au8, Clene Nanomedicine’s investigational oral therapy for amyotrophic…

A research training program in Ireland, called NeuroInsight Fellowship, will use a multi-million grant award to bring established scientists from around the world to that country to advance their skills in neuroscience and data analytics. Two-year fellowships given through this program will allow 33 scientists to further their understanding of…

Clearance was given to open a Phase 1/2 trial evaluating APB-102, a potential gene therapy for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) patients who carry mutations in the SOD1 gene, its developer Apic Bio announced. The trial is scheduled to begin later this year or early next year, following U.S. Food and Drug Administration…

A global Phase 3 trial of AMX0035 as an oral treatment for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS)  intends to enroll up to 600 patients, the therapy’s developer, Amylyx Pharmaceuticals, announced in a press release. Likely to begin in the coming months, the trial — to be called PHOENIX…

Two years after my husband, Todd, was diagnosed with ALS, I read an article that gave me hope. An Israeli rabbi who had ALS saw improvement with NurOwn, an experimental stem cell treatment by BrainStorm Cell Therapeutics. The man went from being in a wheelchair to walking. I…

The European Patent Office will grant MediciNova a patent that covers the combination of MN-166 (ibudilast) and riluzole for the treatment of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), MediciNova announced. The patent, once issued, will cover a wide range of doses and dosing regimens for both medications, and it…

SOL-257, an experimental gene therapy developed by SOLA Biosciences, delayed disease progression and prolonged the lifespan of a mouse model of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). The gene therapy is designed to reduce the abnormal TDP-43 protein that forms toxic clumps in the cells of ALS patients. “Targeting only…