Project A.L.S. and Robert Packard Center for ALS Research partner in $15M research initiative

Jan 30 2010

Leading researchers unite P2ALS, a 3-year mission to understand and treat neurodegenerative disease

Project A.L.S. (New York, NY) and the Robert Packard Center for ALS Research at Johns Hopkins University (Baltimore, MD) announced that they will partner on P2 ALS, a $15 million initiative designed to advance ALS (Lou Gehrig's disease) research exponentially over the next three years.

Project A.L.S. and the Packard Center, non-profit leaders in forging productive collaborations among research scientists, will focus jointly on identifying the underlying causes of and the first effective treatments for ALS, a uniformly fatal neurodegenerative disease that is closely related to Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and Huntington's diseases. Co-scientific directors of P2 ALS are Robert H. Brown, Jr., M.D., D.Phil. (University of Massachusetts), Thomas M. Jessell, Ph.D. (HHMI/Columbia University), and Jeffrey Rothstein, M.D., Ph.D. (Johns Hopkins University).

P2ALS is distinctive in that it unites key world leaders in the three disciplines that have recently transformed the landscape of ALS science: Genetics, Stem Cell Reprogramming, and Glial-Neuron Signaling. Through P2ALS, targeted research in these three areas will be performed in an interactive, collaborative, and transparent manner. As such, the implications of discoveries in one area will be rapidly transmitted and tested in complementary areas, by multiple laboratories. New observations and ideas can and will be validated or refuted with unprecedented speed.

P2ALS unites leading researchers from University of California San Diego, Columbia University, Harvard University, Johns Hopkins University, University of Massachusetts, University of Montana, Project A.L.S./Jenifer Estess Laboratory for Stem Cell Research, Salk Institute, and partner laboratories worldwide.

"Project A.L.S. is honored to join with Packard for what is arguably the most powerful partnership in the history of ALS research," said Valerie Estess, Director of Research for Project A.L.S. "It's like Coke and Pepsi working together. Project A.L.S. is confident that that P2ALS will fuel the entire ALS field not only with ideas, but strategies and tools for treating people with ALS. "

Through this merger of mind and method, P2ALS will focus on identifying the key genetic, biochemical and cellular pathways that underlie ALS and aims to define primary molecular targets for the development of new ALS therapies, within a three-year period.

"P2ALS is the most exciting undertaking in ALS research ever. The opportunity to bring a group of highly productive creative leaders from the Packard Center with those funded by Project A.L.S., including iPS biology, motor neuron and glial biology, and experts in drug discovery, with a milestone driven approach provides a fantastic opportunity to synergize ALS research in a way I have never seen," said Packard's Medical Director, Jeff Rothstein.