Wright State to receives $450,000 grant

DAYTON — A $450,000 grant to conduct research related to the neurological disease ALS has been awarded to Wright State University by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

The three-year National Institutes of Health grant, which starts April 1, was announced by U.S. Rep. Michael Turner.

The grant will fund the work of principal investigator Shulin Ju and co-investigator Quan Zhong, associate professors of biological sciences at Wright State.

“We are grateful for the funding of this important project,” said Ju. “Both undergraduate and graduate students have made huge contributions to research in our labs. With this funding, we will support many more talented undergraduate and graduate students to gain research experience that otherwise will be cut short.”

Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) is a devastating neurodegenerative disease that robs patients of the ability to move and breathe. It is commonly known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease for the New York Yankees star who died from the disease.

Affecting nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord, ALS starts with the progressive loss of muscle function followed by paralysis and ultimately death due to inability to breathe. There is no cure for ALS and no effective treatment to halt or reverse the progression of the disease. Most people with ALS die within three to five years from when symptoms first appear.

The research by Ju and Zhong is aimed at understanding mechanisms of the cellular toxicity of the protein-coding gene FUS, mutations in which cause ALS.