What We’ve Accomplished So Far in 2026

Building capacity for the next stage of ALS research 

Recent advances have shown that ALS is an umbrella term encompassing multiple biological processes resulting in motor neuron degeneration and the progressive paralysis this causes. In many ways, it is like cancer, which is an umbrella term encompassing many types of diseases of uncontrolled cell replication.

Modern medicine has shown that the most effective way to treat cancer is to use very targeted approaches for each type—and we are learning that the same is true for ALS.

This means that it is essential that we continue to pursue multiple therapeutic ideas in order to end ALS for everyone with ALS. Currently, there are more promising therapeutic ideas and paths forward than ever before—many for specific subtypes of ALS—but without sufficient infrastructure and expertise, too many risk slowing or stalling.

To meet this moment, ALS TDI announced a landmark expansion in 2026, made possible by a generous commitment by Augie’s Quest to Cure ALS and the support of the ALS community. This expanded capacity will allow ALS TDI to:

• Broaden and refine ALS models and tools: Develop more advanced disease models to support precise, targeted therapeutic strategies.
• Accelerate drug discovery: Increase the speed and scale of therapeutic screening to advance promising treatments faster.
• Advance more ideas in parallel: Pursue multiple therapeutic approaches at once—reducing risk and increasing the likelihood of meaningful breakthroughs.
• Move more therapies toward clinical trials: Generate the rigorous data and validation needed to support efficient progression to human testing.

2026 Research Highlights

Alongside our expansion, our team has continued work across drug discovery, biomarkers, and research studies involving people with ALS.

• Our team invented and built an innovative and necessary human motor neuron drug screening platform focused on correcting TDP-43 loss-of-function, an area of biology that may be important in the majority of ALS cases.
• We launched PRISM ALS, a collaboration with Axol Bioscience and LifeArc aiming to develop iPSC-derived motor neuron models of sporadic ALS that can be made widely available to the research community. These models will be based on the iPSC cell lines created at ALS TDI, which are derived from samples donated by participants in the ARC Study.
• We are correlating voice recordings and accelerometer data with clinical outcomes in people with ALS to bring potential digital biomarkers closer to use in ALS clinical trials.
• We are expanding our biomarker research by analyzing comprehensive datasets and omics data from ARC participants.
• Our team developed new, highly sensitive antibodies against methylated C9orf72 dipeptide repeats. These reagents could support future biomarker development and may even have therapeutic potential.
• In 2026, we began enrolling athletes, first responders, and military service members in the Champion Insights Study, a collaboration with Answer ALS and Augie’s Quest to Cure ALS. Champion Insights aims to uncover genetic and metabolic factors that may help explain the higher incidence of ALS among these groups.
• We continued to increase enrollment in the ALS Research Collaborative (ARC) Study, the longest-running natural history study in ALS, which aims to enroll 2,000 participants worldwide. This allows us to gather invaluable data that informs research at ALS TDI and beyond.

Taking the Next Step Together

Thank you to everyone who makes this work possible. With our community alongside us, we can take this next step together—testing more promising ideas and moving ALS research forward for everyone affected by the disease.

What to Do Next:

• To learn more about how ALS TDI’s expansion will advance research, what our Town Hall recording here.
• To learn more about ALS TDI’s research, watch the ALS TDI Summit recordings here.
• To support our continued ALS research, donate here.