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Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS)

About the IPM ALS project

An ongoing collaboration between Dr. Zachary Simmons, physician and professor of neurology at Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center, and investigators in the IPM addresses the genetic underpinnings of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), or Lou Gehrig’s disease.

ALS is a progressive, fatal neurodegenerative disease that causes weakness and paralysis, with approximately 10 percent of the cases being inherited. By determining the genomic sequences of patients from the Neuroscience Institute’s ALS clinic, IPM investigators have identified the causative mutation in several patients with inherited ALS and are working to understand the basis for the disease in those with sporadic ALS. These data should allow clinicians to design improved clinical trials in a search for better treatments, to better predict the progression of a patient’s disease, and to identify targets for the development of new drugs.

Funding: This project is funded through CURE and two philanthropic gifts, the Zimmerman Endowment and the Margaret Hathaway fund.

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