As I assume the role of CEO at the ALS Therapy Development Institute (ALS TDI), I am proud to lead a deeply dedicated and talented team with an amazing community of supporters. At the same time, I am humbled by the tremendous responsibility of stewarding us toward the completion of our single mission – to end ALS.

I have spent my entire career at ALS TDI because I believe we have the greatest potential to make an impact in ALS. I am immensely proud to be a part of this exceptional organization.

I am proud that we are a science-driven institute with a brilliant team dedicated to advancing treatments for ALS. I am equally proud of our deep and strong roots in the broader ALS community of talented, well-informed, and highly motivated people – people with ALS, their families, caretakers, and those who have lost loved ones to the disease. Many of us at ALS TDI, myself included, have confronted the same pains in our personal lives – we’ve grieved as loved ones have suffered from ALS.

So, alongside you, those of us at ALS TDI dedicate our lives to changing the prognosis for this disease – each of us devoting our specific skills to create a future where an ALS diagnosis is not a death sentence. At ALS TDI our role in changing the future is clear and unwavering ­– we invent and discover new treatments for ALS.

I have been studying ALS for two decades and now, more than ever, I believe that we are at a pivotal moment in research. New knowledge is revealing unexplored therapeutic pathways, and new technologies hold the profound potential to help us address the needs of people with ALS.

As long as research remains a top priority, these advances in knowledge and technology will lead to treatments. But no one treatment will address the needs of all people with ALS. So, while the current therapeutic pipeline is promising, if we want to change the future of ALS, we must continue to fuel this pipeline with new treatments.

As CEO of ALS TDI, and as a person driven by the loss of my best friend to ALS, I pledge my dedication to fulfill our mission. With your support, we will overcome the challenges. We will not stop until we end ALS.


Sincerely,

Fernando Vieira, M.D., CEO and CSO
The ALS Therapy Development Institute