Les Turner ALS Center at Northwestern Medicine

For 13 years, 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.

Read more about the 2023 Symposium

For 12 years, 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.

Read all about the 2022 Les Turner Symposium ALS.

Les Turner Symposium Celebrates Scientific Discovery in ALS

The 11^th annual Les Turner Symposium on ALS, yet again, highlighted the ways Northwestern scientists and clinicians have continued their pursuit of knowledge and therapies for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), featuring scientific presentations on new directions in ALS therapies and a question-and-answer session for patients and caretakers.

Read all about the 2021 Les Turner Symposium ALS here and here.

Keynote Address: Robert H. Brown, Jr., D.Phil, MD - New Directions in ALS Therapies

Clinical Conversations Panel – featuring Colin Franz, MD, PhD, Senda Ajroud-Driss, MD, Robert H. Brown, Jr., D.Phil, MD, Lauren Webb, LCSW, and Lisa F. Wolfe, MD 

"The Clinical Importance of Motor Neuron Degeneration After Spinal Cord Injury" – Colin Franz, MD, PhD

"Mitochondrial Dysfunction in FTD-ALS Spectrum Disorders" – Jane Wu, MD, PhD

"Harnessing the Power of iPSCs and ‘omics to Understand Neurodegenerative Diseases" - Michael E. Ward, MD, PhD

“Protein Aggregation and the Development of NU-9 for Upper Motor Neuron Diseases, Including ALS” -  Richard B. Silverman, PhD

Opening Remarks - Robert Kalb, MD 

Opening Remarks - Hande Ozdinler, PhD 

Closing Remarks - Andrea Pauls Backman, CEO, Les Turner ALS Foundation

Les Turner Symposium Celebrates Scientific Discovery in ALS

The 10^th annual Les Turner Symposium on ALS —the first one held virtually — highlighted the ways Northwestern scientists and clinicians have continued their pursuit of knowledge and therapies for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), featuring scientific presentations underlining the heterogeneity of the neurodegenerative disease, updates on innovative clinical trials and a question-and-answer session for patients and caretakers.

Read all about the 2020 Les Turner Symposium ALS here

Keynote Address: Sabrina Paganoni, MD, PhD - “The HEALEY ALS Platform Trial: an innovative and collaborative trial to accelerate the development of effective treatments for ALS”

Clinical Conversations Panel – featuring Colin Franz, MD, PhD, Senda Ajroud-Driss, MD, Sabrina Paganoni, MD, PhD and Lisa F. Wolfe, MD

“Neurons undergo pathogenic metabolic reprograming in modes of familial ALS” – Robert Kalb, MD

“On mechanisms and markers of ALS” – Tania Gendron, PhD

“Aggregation-dependent and independent mechanisms of toxicity in TDP-43 and FUS proteinopathies” - Magdalini Polymenidou, PhD

“Novel Insights into the Molecular Mechanisms Driving Neuronal Degeneration in Genetic ALS” - Evangelos Kiskinis, PhD

“Cellular and Molecular Basis of Upper Motor Neuron Degeneration in ALS” - Hande Ozdinler, PhD

“TDP-43 proteinopathy alters the ribosome association of multiple mRNAs including the glypican Dally-like protein (Dlp)/GPC6” - Daniela C. Zarnescu, PhD

“ALS5 and mouse models: Molecular insight into neurodegenerative diseases” - Han-Xiang Deng, MD, PhD

“Using C. elegans genetics to inform human neurodegenerative disease mechanisms” - Brian Kraemer, PhD