Facts About Local ALS Research
Dr. Jeffrey Elliott, recognized for his novel and productive ALS research, is director of the MDA/ALS Center of Dallas located at The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center. His team is studying both the familial and sporadic mice models of ALS.

Support resulting from previous ALS Dinners has been vital in building the ALS research lab at UT Southwestern. Contributions are used to fund excellent technical staff as well as skilled scientists with expertise in critical aspects of molecular and cellular neuroscience. Donations have enables the purchase of sophisticated equipment such as a specialized microscope that allows for live real time imaging of nerve cells.

Dr. Elliott's lab is the only lab in the world currently to have generated mouse models of TDP-43 related disease using human wild type (normal) and mutant TDP-43. This success puts the team in a unique position to fully explore how changes in this protein lead to motor nerve cell injury and then importantly use this animal model to test possible therapeutic agents. There is increasing recognition that TDP-43 plays a key role in both a genetic form of ALS as well as in sporadic ALS.

Current Laboratory Funding Needs
Staff - Hiring additional personnel to expand the TDP-43 and SOD1 projects further. In particular, Dr. Elliott wished to recruit an additional scientist with an expertise in protein isolation and identification.

Equipment - Electroporation allows for the safe and efficient introduction of genes into primary nerve cells in culture using specialized almost instantaneous pulses of electric current. Adding this equipment into the lab facility would be of tremendous importance.

If you would like more information about MDA's ALS research efforts, visit www.als-mda.org.