Finding My People

I cried again as I read yet another social media post by a caregiving spouse whose husband just died from ALS. ALS kills someone every 90 minutes, and I’ve made online connections with many caregivers, which means I frequently read of somebody’s loss. I cry hardest when another mom…

The Japan Patent Office has granted a patent to Brainstorm Cell Therapeutics covering the proprietary technique that generates the company’s cell-based therapy NurOwn from mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs). Through this technique, researchers can harness MSCs directly from a patient and mature them into cells that produce…

Three grants given researchers at two centers in Australia will advance work into ways of preserving nerve cells in people with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), and other motor neuron diseases. The grants, totaling AU$1.5 million (about $1.1 million), came from FightMND, an Australian nonprofit patient advocacy group. Lezanne…

Hang on tightly, it’s another week of weather events, news alerts, and a continuing health crisis. I feel like I’m riding on a big airplane flying through rough turbulence. Certainly, living with ALS has taught me I can’t control the jiggles and the bumps, but I can control how I…

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has awarded a $1.9 million grant to University of Missouri (MU) researchers to study ways of preserving essential functions like swallowing and breathing in people with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and other motor neuron diseases. This four-year grant was awarded to…

Novus Therapeutics has acquired Anelixis Therapeutics and its portfolio, including the antibody AT-1501, a potential treatment for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) that the company is planning to move into a Phase 2 clinical trial for ALS and other diseases. AT-1501 is an antibody against a…

Microsoft opened its 2014 Super Bowl ad with the question: “What is technology?”  As Steve Gleason, an ex-New Orleans Saints safety later diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), spoke about the power of technology, videos rolled of doctors manipulating 3D X-rays, a blind man painting,…

Lulu Wang’s film “The Farewell” is based on an actual lie. The 2019 comedic drama looks at a family’s decision to keep their matriarch ignorant of her stage IV lung cancer diagnosis with a prognosis of death in three months. Billi, a Chinese American woman, travels to China for…

IPL344, Immunity Pharma‘s investigational therapy for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), has a positive safety and tolerability profile and slows disease progression by about 50%, according to interim results from a small Phase 1/2a clinical trial. The company said it now is planning a placebo-controlled trial to evaluate IPL344…

The first patient has been dosed in a Phase 2a clinical trial evaluating the safety and effectiveness of ALZT-OP1a, a dry-powder inhaled formulation of cromolyn, in people with mild-to-moderate amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). The trial (NCT04428775) is recruiting up to 80 patients, ages 18–75, who have been…