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Motor neuron disease in 2014

Biomarkers for ALS—in search of the Promised Land

Nature Reviews Neurology volume 11, pages 72–74 (2015)Cite this article

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The past year has seen some extraordinary activity in clinical amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) research. Two trials were completed, with negative results, but the discovery of novel ALS-associated genes, and body fluid and imaging biomarkers warrants cautious optimism. Here, we provide a snapshot of some of the main findings in 2014.

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Acknowledgements

A.C. is currently funded by Italian Health Ministry grant RF-2010-2309849, European Community's Health Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) under grant agreements 259867 and 278611, and the Joint Programme-Neurodegenerative Disease Research granted by Italian Ministry of Health (Sophia Project) and by Italian Ministry of University and Research (ALS-CARE and Strength Projects). B.J.T. is currently funded by intramural Research Programs of the US National Institutes of Health (NIH), National Institute on Aging (Z01-AG000949-02) and NINDS.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. 'Rita Levi Montalcini' Department of Neuroscience, University of Torino, via Cherasco 15, Torino, 10126, Italy

    Adriano Chiò

  2. Neuromuscular Diseases Research Unit, Laboratory of Neurogenetics, National Institute on Aging, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, 20892, MD, USA

    Bryan J. Traynor

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  1. Adriano Chiò
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  2. Bryan J. Traynor
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Correspondence to Adriano Chiò.

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Competing interests

A.C. serves on scientific advisory boards for Cytokinetics, Biogen Idec, and Italfarmaco. B.J.T. holds a patent on methods to screen for the hexanucleotide repeat expansion in C9ORF72.

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Chiò, A., Traynor, B. Biomarkers for ALS—in search of the Promised Land. Nat Rev Neurol 11, 72–74 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrneurol.2014.250

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