The 2023 Les Turner Symposium on ALS will be held virtually and in-person at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago on Monday, Nov. 6.

The Les Turner Symposium on ALS has featured presentations from leading ALS scientists and clinicians, as well as people living with ALS; plus research posters, a Q&A panel and more. The symposium is free and open to the public, with thanks to our generous sponsors.

Time: Registration Opens- 8:00am

Symposium – 8:45am – 5:00pm

Breakfast, lunch and refreshments will be served.

It will be held in person with opportunities to stream presentations from home.

Registration and Abstract submissions will be open in July.

Keynote Presentation: Antisense based therapy for rare neurological diseases

C. Frank Bennett, Ph.D

Currently there are multiple genetic based medicines being pursued for rare neurological diseases including antisense technology, gene therapy and gene editing technologies. Antisense oligonucleotides (ASOs are one of the more advanced technologies. ASOs are synthetic, chemical modified nucleic acid analogs designed to bind to RNA by Watson-Crick base paring. Upon binding to the RNA, ASOs modulate the function of the targeted RNA through a variety of mechanisms. Both protein coding, as well as non-coding RNAs, can be targets of ASO based drugs, significantly broadening therapeutic targets for drug discovery compared to small molecules and protein based therapeutics. The approval of nusinersen (Spinraza™) as a treatment for spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) and the recent approval of tofersen (Qalsody) for familial ALS validates the utility of antisense drugs for the treatment of motor neuron diseases. The application of antisense technology as potential therapy for other rare neurodegenerative diseases and neurodevelopmental disorders will be discussed.