Barrow Neurological Institute has received a $16.7 million award from the National Institutes of Health, its largest grant ever from that agency.
The funds will support Barrow as it helps coordinate a new national consortium to study Lou Gehrig’s disease.
Barrow will serve as the West coordinating center for the amyotrophic lateral sclerosis undertaking, called the Access for All in ALS (ALL ALS) Consortium.
Massachusetts General Hospital and Columbia University will partner on the project, which will include 34 clinical sites in the U.S. and Puerto Rico.
Together, they will collect biological samples over an extended period, along with clinical data that scientists can access via a web portal.
The records will include people living with ALS, those at risk for developing the disease and healthy people who will act as controls.
About 5,000 new cases of the progressive and fatal neurodegenerative disease are diagnosed in the U.S. each year.
