The ALS Association has awarded $4 million in research grants to researchers in 31 laboratories across the U.S., U.K., Belgium, Germany and Canada to find treatments and a cure for Lou Gehrig's disease (ALS)

The awards are part of ALS Association’s Translational Research Advancing Therapies for ALS (TREAT ALS) program, through which the Association funds a diverse portfolio of research on the progressive neurodegenerative disease that affects nerve cells in the brain and the spinal cord.

"We are very pleased to announce these new research grants to some of the most promising ALS researchers in the U.S. and around the world," said Lucie Bruijn, Ph.D., chief scientist for the ALS Association. "The ALS Association looks forward to sharing the results of these diverse studies, which we hope will provide pieces to the complex puzzle of this devastating disease."

The Association offers both investigator-initiated awards, for research proposed by the scientists themselves, and ALS Association-initiated awards, for research proposals in areas identified by the Association and its scientific advisors as key targets for new research. The Association also offers the Milton Safenowitz Post-Doctoral Fellowship for ALS Research Award—funding two years of research and encouraging young scientists to enter the ALS field.

These grants will fund research that includes work in cell and animal model systems, genetics, environmental investigations, and work directly with people with ALS.