Amgen and Neumora Therapeutics announced that they are collaborating to develop precision therapies for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and other brain diseases. The partnership will leverage each of the company’s expertise, with the goal of bringing to the market effective therapies targeted at those patients most likely…

My husband, Todd, began monitoring his breathing after he was diagnosed with ALS. We were told that he’d need to have surgery to insert a feeding tube before his forced vital capacity (FVC) dipped below 50%, and so he had it measured every few months at an ALS clinic.

A signaling protein called neurturin promotes the development of muscles with greater endurance, leading to better exercise performance and coordination, according to a new mouse study. The results suggest that therapeutic approaches using neurturin — for example, using a gene therapy that encodes the protein — might be useful…

An investigational treatment for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), SBT-272 was found to sustainably reach different brain regions, and to protect mitochondria — a cell’s energy source — from TDP-43 toxic aggregates in a mouse model of the disease. “We are excited about the promise of SBT-272 as a potential therapeutic…

Early trials in healthy adults supported the safety and tolerability of two potential oral therapies for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) — DNL343 to prevent the cellular stress that can promote toxic protein granules, and DNL788 to block a protein linked to brain inflammation — Denali Therapeutics reported. A Phase…

An imaging agent developed by Ashvattha Therapeutics can accurately detect brain inflammation caused by microglia, immune cells that play a key role in neurological diseases such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), a mouse study reported. The company is planning to initiate a Phase 1/2 clinical trial in ALS…

Simultaneous injections of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) into the blood and spinal canal were found to delay disease progression in people with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) in a small clinical trial. “Our results demonstrated that the IT [intrathecal, or into-the-spine] and IV transplantation of [MSCs] in ALS patients…

A five-year National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant worth $2.4 million will support an Emory University researcher’s use of artificial intelligence (AI) to accurately and quickly — in real time — decode the electrical signals sent by the brain to control movement. Its ultimate goal is to find ways to “reconnect” the…

Dimethyl fumarate or DMF — an oral therapy approved for multiple sclerosis (MS) — was well-tolerated among adults with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) but failed to significantly slow disease progression or to improve survival and quality of life in these patients, according to data from a Phase 2…

I realize the words “ALS” and “humor” don’t always hang out together, but in my life they often do. I’ve been living with ALS since 2010, and over the years, I’ve learned not to let a day go by without finding humor in the absurdity of it all. Most of…