Researching and developing novel therapeutics for individuals and families with ALS.

microscope with lab glassware, science laboratory research and development concept

Research

The Eleanor and Lou Gehrig ALS Center leads an integrated ALS research program at Columbia University that spans basic, translational, and clinical efforts across multiple schools, departments, institutes, and centers throughout our institution. Through a growing understanding of motor neuron disease mechanisms, our efforts focus on the development of novel therapeutics for individuals and families with ALS.

Patient-based research at the ALS Center includes brain imaging, genomic and observational studies, stem cell generation, and biofluid and tissue banking programs.  These serve as the foundation of efforts to explore disease mechanisms, identify new therapeutic targets, and test novel candidate drugs and strategies which drive clinical research.

Clinical Trials

The Eleanor and Lou Gehrig ALS Center is a leading clinical research center, offering ALS patients the opportunity to participate in the testing of the most promising candidate ALS therapies.

Genomic

The Genomic Translation for ALS Care (GTAC) study is following 1,500 people living with ALS over a three-year period.

ALS Families Project

To help ALS families understand and manage their risk, we have established ALS Families Project, a pre-symptomatic ALS program at the Eleanor and Lou Gehrig ALS Center sponsored by Project ALS.

ALS Registry and Biorepository

The ALS Registry and Biorepository will establish a stable resource for the study of disease mechanisms in sporadic and familial forms of ALS.

ALS Biofluid Collection

The ALS Biofluid Program is focused on collection of blood plasma and serum, urine, and cerebrospinal fluid from ALS patients and healthy individuals.

Postmortem Tissue Program

Brain and spinal cord tissue donations are critical to our efforts to understand how neurons degenerate in ALS, and to develop novel therapies for this and related neurodegenerative disorders.

ALS Stem Cell Core Program

The ALS Center, in partnership with the Stem Cell Core Facility at Columbia University, makes available cell lines from ALS patients and healthy donors that serve as cellular models of disease.

Research Affiliates

The ALS Center collaborates with research programs across Columbia University to focus our great strengths in basic, translational, and clinical neuroscience on preventing, treating and curing ALS.

Participate in Research

If you are interested in volunteering to participate in one or more of these studies or programs, contact the ALS Center.

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