CIRM: Phase III clinical trial targeting Lou Gehrig’s disease gets US$15.9 million investment

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, is a particularly nasty, almost always fatal neurological condition that has no effective treatment and no cure. Now the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) is investing $15.9 million in a therapy to try and change that. ALS attacks motor neurons, the cells in the brain and spinal cord that control our muscles and movement. Over time the disease  destroys a person’s ability to speak, to swallow, to move, even to breathe. BrainStorm Cell Therapeutics has developed a therapy they hope will slow down, and potentially even stop, the progression...