P2ALS meeting in New York City brings together leading ALS researchers.

Via Scoop.it – ALS Lou Gehrig’s Disease

On February 9 and 10, ALS researchers from P2ALS and several different pharmaceutical companies gathered in New York as part of the semi-annual meetings of P2ALS. P2ALS was founded in 2010 as a joint effort between The Robert Packard Center for ALS Research and Project A.L.S. with the goal of finding new treatments for ALS. This collaboration established a highly cooperative network of scientists that share unpublished findings to facilitate rapid testing and verification of complex research questions posed by ALS. Initially, P2ALS focused on genetics, and motor neuron and glial biology– basic science that allowed the identification of pathogenic pathways in ALS and potential therapeutic targets. At this most recent meeting held in New York City, the headquarters of Project A.L.S., scientists from around the world shared their most recent research, which covered advances in motor neuron and astrocyte biology, the genetics of familial and sporadic ALS, including new avenues of study opened up by the discovery of the C9ORF72 gene, and recent progress in the use of stem cells in the study and treatment of ALS.
Via www.alscenter.org