Research suggests new avenues for attacking ALS
Harvard Stem Cell Institute (HSCI) researchers at Harvard University and the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT have found evidence that bone marrow transplantation may one day be beneficial to a subset of patients suffering from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), a fatal neurodegenerative disorder more commonly known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. ALS destroys the neurons connecting the brain and spinal cord to muscles throughout the body. As those neurons die, patients progressively lose the ability to move, speak, eat, and breathe. The mouse-model study, published this week in Science Translational Medicine, suggests the most common genetic mutation associated with ALS plays an important role in not only the nervous system, but also the blood and immune systems. “The point of our paper was to determine the function of this gene and what it normally helps to do in the body,” said lead author Kevin Eggan, a professor in Harvard’s Department of Stem Cell...