Greetings from Ohio State and the OSUWMC ALS/MND Multidisciplinary Clinic and Research Program! I’m proud to bring you these updates on ALS research activity and accomplishments by your Buckeye ALS Clinic and Research Teams.
I am very proud to announce that we have been awarded a prestigious four-year grant called a Clinical Trial Capacity Award from the ALS Association! The goal of this award is to increase participation in ALS clinical trials and efforts to improve the speed and efficiency of clinical trial conduct at both established and emerging ALS clinical trial sites. We are very grateful to have been selected for this competitive, international award.
So, what does this mean?
Scientific progress has led to an increase in the number and complexity of clinical trials that are available for people with ALS. This hopeful progress has created a need for an increase in the number and capacity of excellent ALS clinical trial sites to increase opportunities for people with ALS to participate in clinical trials. The Ohio State University ALS/MND Multidisciplinary Clinic and Research Program is an established and experienced Program that serves an urban/rural area that includes the Ohio River Valley and beyond.
The goals of the Ohio State Clinical Trial Capacity project are to increase clinical trial enrollment, improve outreach efforts, and accelerate programmatic growth to be a regional and national destination for high-impact interventional studies with an emphasis on emerging genetic therapies in ALS. In particular, we plan to increase the number of enrollments into investigator-initiated translational and biorepository programs to further our scientific mission and provide greater resources to the ALS scientific community at large. We will do this by establishing an ALSA-funded Senior Clinical Research Coordinator (CRC). In this role, the Senior CRC will serve as the Patient Navigator for ALS Research, ensure rigor and direction with the other CRCs within our Division who are working on ALS studies, as well as coordinate ALS clinical trials.
Sarah Heintzman, APRN-CNP, FNP-C, CCRC will serve as co-Investigator for ALS studies involving medical procedures such as intravenous and intrathecal delivery for therapeutics and skin and muscle biopsies for translational studies.
For information about all of the OSU ALS research opportunities, please contact Sarah Heintzman at Sarah.Heintzman@osumc.edu or Elizabeth Wiley at Elizabeth.Wiley@osumc.edu.
I am very optimistic about the progress that we will make in 2023, and I look forward to sharing our next update soon.
Stephen J. Kolb, M.D., Ph.D.
Professor, Department of Neurology, Department of Biological Chemistry & Pharmacology
Director, OSUMC ALS/MND Multidisciplinary Clinic and Research Program