Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis is a disease of the brain and spinal cord which causes progressive muscle weakness. Amyotrophic means that motor neurons--nerves that nourish and signal muscles--wither and die, causing the muscles themselves to shrink and atrophy. Both upper motor neurons, in the brain, and lower motor neurons, die in the disease. Lateral refers to the outer part of the spinal cord tracts where nerve fibers are injured. Sclerosis means that these tracts harden. ALS is also called Lou Gehrig’s disease, after the famous baseball player who died from the disease in 1941, at a time when little was known about it.

Hope Center Research Related to ALS

Nigel Cairns, Ph.D., MRCPath Research Associate Professor of Neurology and Pathology & Immunology; Director, Betty Martz Laboratory for Neurodegenerative Research Division

Carl Frieden, Ph.D. Professor of Biochemistry & Molecular Biophysics

James E. Galvin, M.D. Assistant Professor of Neurology

Eugene Johnson, Ph.D. Professor of Neurology and Molecular Biology & Pharmacology; Hope Center Steering Committee

Jeffrey D. Milbrandt, M.D., Ph.D. David Clayson Professor of Neurology; Professor of Pathology & Immunology and Internal Medicine; Hope Center Steering Committee

Timothy M. Miller, M.D., Ph.D. Assistant Professor of Neurology

Alexander Parsadanian, Ph.D. Research Assistant Professor of Neurology

Alan Pestronk, M.D. Professor of Neurology and Pathology; Director of the Neuromuscular Division

Anneliese M. Schaefer, Ph.D. Instructor of Neurology and Molecular Biology & Pharmacology

Christian T. Sheline, Ph.D. Research Assistant Professor of Neurology

B. Joy Snider, M.D., Ph.D. Assistant Professor of Neurology