Grant Details

Molecular Identification of Neural Progenitors/Stem Cells Fated to the Lineage of Corticospinal Motor Neurons in Vivo
Arlotta, PhD, Paola
Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA

Project Summary
ALS kills the motor neurons in spinal cord, and also those in the brain that fine tune the activity of the spinal motor neurons as they work the muscles. Arlotta will seek to manipulate the specific program of gene expression that controls how and when the brain’s motor neurons form in the developing animal. This knowledge should add to the ability to implement stem cell therapy for ALS. Arlotta was part of the effort that identified, for the first time, a set of genes that control development of the brain’s motor neurons. To build on these data, the plan is to use a selected combination of these newly found genes to identify and isolate stem cells that are fated to become brain motor neurons. The experiments enable several major directions of research aimed at understanding how to induce and control stem cells to reform the brain motor neurons to therapeutic ends in ALS.