ProposalCentral link https://proposalcentral.com/grantopportunities.asp?GMID=215#

For this funding opportunity we will accept applications from all scientific disciplines on topics that have the potential to ultimately prevent ALS. In addition to projects focused on ALS, projects that investigate the continuum of disease spanning ALS and FTD are in scope. We are especially interested in:

• • Improved tools for demonstrating a causative role of environmental exposures in a scientifically rigorous manner that is least burdensome to people with ALS o Can include direct epidemiological methods, as well as other approaches including Mendelian randomization, epigenetic studies, animal models, etc.
• • Development of frameworks for determining the level of evidence required to translate knowledge of an environmental risk factor into a pharmaceutical, behavioral, or ecological intervention
• • Preclinical or clinical drug development aimed at prevention of ALS, including efforts to treat prodromal syndromes such as mild motor impairment (MMI)
• • Partnerships across FTD and other neurodegenerative and neuropsychiatric disease communities to mitigate ALS risk among different populations at elevated risk for ALS
• • New studies leveraging existing population-based cohorts, to study both environmental risk factors for ALS, as well as MMI as a clinical syndrome that is prodromal to ALS o Cohorts could include at-risk populations such as military veterans o Formal recognition of MMI as a diagnostic entity could facilitate such studies
• • Infrastructure to enable study of those at elevated risk for ALS including clinical cohorts and efforts designed to study potential interactions between genetic and environmental risk factors
• • Any other proposal with the potential to prevent the onset of ALS