About
Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known in the U.S. as Lou Gehrig’s disease, is a degenerative disease of the nervous system that affects motor nerve cells (neurons) and results in relentlessly progressive muscle weakness. ALS is inherited (familial) in 5-10% of patients, and the majority have non-inherited (sporadic) ALS.
Although the cause of sporadic ALS is unknown and there is no cure yet, research on the disease is advancing at a rapid pace. There is one drug that does modify the disease course somewhat; other drugs are undergoing clinical trials; and, symptomatic treatments are available.
The University of Pittsburgh Center for ALS Research was established in 2005 to integrate and coordinate the work of University of Pittsburgh researchers and clinicians studying ALS and other motor neuron diseases. The founding director, Dr. Robert Bowser, moved his research program to the Barrow Neurologic Institute in 2011. Dr. Robert Ferrante, assumed the role of Co-Director and leader of the basic and translational research program the same year, and was recognized as The Leonard Gerson Distinguished Scholar. The Center includes numerous laboratories in the Departments of Neurosurgery, Neurology, and Pathology searching for causes and treatments of ALS and researchers from the Graduate School of Public Health studying epidemiology and palliative care issues associated with ALS. The clinical arm of the Center is a designated MDA-ALS Center that includes a multidisciplinary clinic led by Co-Director, Dr. David Lacomis who also directs the and clinical research program.
The Center also administers the ALS Tissue Donation Program—a resource that collects and stores human brain and spinal cord tissue samples from ALS and control subjects for use in research activities within the University of Pittsburgh and throughout the country.
