Unearthing the Cause of ALS

Remember the ice bucket challenge? Did you, like millions of Americans, dump cold water on your head to help raise funds for research into ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis)? Since the ice bucket challenge took the social media world by storm, a series of significant breakthroughs have resulted. The Congressional Biomedical Research Caucus welcomes one of the researchers involved with two of those breakthroughs— Dr. Han-Xiang Deng. Dr. Deng will discuss how he and his collaborators have identified several ALS genes as well as developed the first ALS mouse models. Both discoveries will help researchers better understand the disease as well as test for efficacious drugs.