Scripps prof gets $7.2M ALS grant

A Jupiter professor and collaborators are receiving $7.2 million in a new grant to continue a quest begun when millions of people dumped buckets of ice water on their heads to fight a terrible disease.

The goal: “Before people ever get symptoms, delay those or inhibit them altogether” for diseases such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS, said professor Matthew Disney of the chemistry department on the Jupiter campus of The Scripps Research Institute.

The money comes from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke of The National Institutes of Health. Partners in the work include Mayo Clinic’s Florida campus and the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine.

“Our work has changed the view of what is considered a druggable target,” Disney said. “This grant is a clear recognition of that accomplishment.”

The funding will “allow us to more rigorously assess” if a smallmolecule drug can be developed to target genes linked with the most common inherited form of ALS and a form of dementia, he said. That’s a crucial step toward making a drug for patients, he said.

The research could lead to drugs for a number of diseases now considered untreatable.

An estimated 30,000 people, including 1,500 in Florida, live with ALS annually. The disease typically robs people of their lives two to five years after diagnosis, after attacking essential skills such as speaking, walking and swallowing.

For people with the disease, “time is not on their side,” Disney said in 2015. “That’s what keeps me up at night.”