Thursday, August 21, 2008

Hospitals donate blood, tissue to fight ALS

By Mass High Tech Staff

The ALS Therapy Development Institute, a Cambridge nonprofit in search of treatments for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, has broadened its partnerships with clinical centers to collect more blood samples and muscle and adipose tissue. The donations will help the institute find potential biomarkers for diagnosing and tracking ALS, also known as ALS or Lou Gehrig’s Disease, the organization reported.

The three clinical centers participating in the blood and tissue sample donation are: Methodist Neurological Institute in Texas, University of California - Irvine and Mount Sinai Medical Center. The ALS TDI said it has also sent out requests to several hospitcals for more donated samples from people diagnosed with ALS in any stage.

ALS, or Lou Gehrig’s disease, is a fatal disease that attacks the nervous system and has no known cause or cure, according to the therapy development institute.

The ALS Therapy Development Institute has 30 scientists and research technicians dedicated to advancing treatments for ALS, according to the nonprofit, making it the largest organization in the world focused exclusively on the disease.

In April, the organization tapped the Allen Institute of Brain Science to analyze tissue from mice with the neurodegenerative disease. The Allen Institute is expected to initially study 100 genes in 500 to 600 tissue samples to find potential drug targets to develop ALS treatments. The first series of tests are slated to be completed by October and cost about $200,000, said Robert Goldstein, a spokesman for the ALS Therapy Development Institute.