In November 2018, our Chief Scientific Officer, Fernando Vieira M.D., gave a talk about the ALS Therapy Development Institute's research strategy to end ALS at the annual Leadership Summit. Below you can listen to his talk and read more about the four pillars he discusses in his talk. Dr. Vieira's talk starts at 42:24 in the video.
WE OPERATE ONE OF THE LARGEST PRECLINICAL DRUG VALIDATION PROGRAMS IN ALS.
There are currently fewer than 25 drugs in clinical trials for ALS. We need a robust, good quality drug pipeline to ultimately treat every person living with ALS. More treatments mean more hope.
WE VALIDATE MORE MODELS OF ALS TO ALLOW FOR RIGOROUS TESTING.
ALS is extremely complex, involving a myriad of biological pathways. To test drugs more rigorously, we need a variety of both cell and animal models to capture all of the complexities of ALS.
WE AIM TO IMPROVE HOW ALS CLINICAL TRIALS ARE RUN.
Clinical trials for ALS currently require too many participants. That slows the studies down and makes them very costly. Using emerging technologies, we hope to make clinical trials faster and require fewer participants in order to more quickly reveal the most promising treatments.
WE LEARN ABOUT ALS FROM PEOPLE LIVING WITH ALS.
In recent years, we’ve learned a lot about ALS, but there is still much that we don’t know. We believe that the best way to learn about ALS is to partner with people living with ALS. Through our Precision Medicine Program, we combine medical histories, family histories, genetics, biomarkers, and patient cell biology to better understand the processes that drive and influence ALS.
You can learn more about what is going on in ALS research at The ALS Therapy Development Institute here.