Understanding the big hitters in Lou Gehrig’s disease: loading our knowledge bases to discover a home run for treatment

In recent weeks several research papers have been published all providing valuable new insight into the roles and functions of key proteins and pathways involved in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).   Three strikes for ALS ALS, commonly referred to as Lou Gehrig’s disease after the former baseball pro who is thought to have suffered from the condition, is a common and fatal neuromuscular disorder that currently has no cure. Approximately 10% of ALS cases are caused by inherited genetic factors; however, whilst many risk factors correlated with ALS onset have been observed, the remaining percentage of cases do not have a clearly defined cause.   Current treatments and diagnostics for ALS are limited by our underlying knowledge of the disease and a lack of identified ALS biomarkers and therapeutic targets. To improve...