A new global initiative launched today aims to close a critical gap in ALS/MND drug discovery – current cell models used for testing treatments do not currently reflect the diverse nature of the disease – that affects both researchers developing therapies and the people urgently waiting for them.
The ALS Therapy Development Institute (ALS TDI), LifeArc, and Axol Bioscience announced the launch of Patient induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC)-based Research to Improve Sporadic ALS Modelling (PRISM), a collaborative effort to expand access to high-quality, patient-derived stem cell models that better reflect the biological complexity of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).
ALS is a heterogeneous disease. While 10-15 % of cases are linked to inherited mutations, nearly 85 % are sporadic. Yet much of ALS…