ALS United Connecticut announces the selection of its 2025 Research Innovation Grantees—an accomplished group of scientists and clinicians whose work is accelerating new approaches in ALS treatment, prevention, and understanding. The grants underscore ALS United’s commitment to driving global research while strengthening expert care and bold advocacy.
This year’s cohort represents leading investigators across multiple disciplines, including genetics, environmental studies, regenerative medicine, biomarker discovery, and novel clinical interventions. Their work aims to bring real progress, and real hope, to people living with ALS today. Grantees were selected via an annual, competitive process with applications reviewed by a world-class Scientific Advisory Committee and Community Research Committee.
“Being part of this collaborative push to uncover new treatments, cures, and the causes of ALS is truly inspiring,” said Jacky Rose, Executive Director at ALS United CT. “We hope with this support, research can be accelerated to find the answers we are urgently searching for.”
The 2025 Research Innovation Grants have been awarded to the following investigators and institutions:
• Sandra Almeida, PhD, University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School, Department of Neurology for Investigation of TDP-43 Dysfunction in an iPSC-Based Three-Dimensional Multicellular Model of C9ORF72-ALS/FTD.
• Frederick Arnold, PhD, Washington University, St. Louis for Investigating Hyperphosphorylation of tau serine 262 as Novel Biomarker and Therapy Target in ALS.
• Claire Clelland, PhD, MD, University of California San Francisco for Rapid Screening of a Miniaturized Cas and gRNAs for AAV Delivery of C9orf72 Gene Therapy.
• Richard Daneman, PhD; John Ravits, MD, University of California San Diego for Multi-omic Analysis of Cerebrovascular Changes in Patients with ALS.
• Faranak Fattahi, PhD; Sarah Kishinevsky, PhD, University of California San Francisco, and EverTree Bio for Evaluation of Glioprotective Small Molecules for ALS therapy.
• Clotilde Lagier-Tourenne, MD, PhD; Liron Bar-Peled, PhD, Massachusetts General Brigham, Department of Neurology and Krantz Family Center for Cancer Research for Chemical Proteomics Drug Discovery in ALS.
• Timothy Miller, MD, PhD, Washington University School of Medicine, Department of Neurology for Probing Human Motor Neuron Vulnerability Using Spatial Transcriptomics.
• Patrick Murphy, PhD, University of Connecticut Medical School for Temporal Control of Endothelial TDP-43 Deletion Reveals Divergent Mechanisms in ALS and FTD.
• Stanislav Piletsky, PhD; Daniel Heller, PhD, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and The Cancer Nanomedicine Laboratory for A Machine Learning-Enabled Nanosensor Array for ALS Diagnosis and Biomarker Discovery.
• Daniel Rubin, MD, PhD; Hadar Levi-Aharoni, PhD; Leigh Hochberg, MD, PhD, Massachusetts General Hospital for Developing Reliable Brain-Computer Interface Systems to Restore Communication for People with ALS.
• Marc Weisskopf, PhD, Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health for Military Occupation and Deployment and Risk of ALS in Veterans.
• Noah Zaitlen, PhD; Roel Ophoff, PhD; Martina Wiedau, MD, University of California Los Angeles for Circulating Cell-Free DNA as Biomarker for Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis Diagnosis and Disease Progression.
• Lyandysha Zholudeva, PhD, Gladstone Institutes for Engineering Human Spinal Circuits to Evaluate Inhibitory Interneuron Therapies for ALS.
These grants are part of ALS United’s expanded commitment to research at a time when federal funding cuts threaten momentum in the field. By investing in high-impact scientific discovery, the organization continues to ensure progress does not stall for the ALS community.
Grant funding is supported by members of ALS United, a community of independent ALS nonprofits dedicated to providing local care services, advancing research initiatives, and advocating for policies that benefit people living with ALS. Led by significant investments from the ALS Network and ALS Northwest to accelerate progress, participating organizations include: ALS Network, ALS Northwest, ALS United Connecticut, ALS United of Georgia, ALS United Greater Chicago, ALS United Greater New York, ALS United Mid-Atlantic, ALS New Mexico, ALS of Nevada, ALS United North Carolina, ALS United Ohio, ALS United Orange County, ALS United Rhode Island, and ALS United Rocky Mountain.
Focused on maximizing impact through a centralized research program facilitated by the ALS Network, the partnership reduces infrastructure costs, eliminates duplication, and increases direct funding to fuel innovative, promising science.
To learn more about ALS United’s research program visit alsunited.org/research
