Could a Canadian breakthrough lead to an ALS cure?

In Today’s The Big Story podcast, scientists are very careful about throwing around words like ‘breakthrough’ or ‘cure’ — especially when it comes to diseases like ALS that are so devastating to their victims. But the past few months have seen an incredible sense of optimism around research being done by a team at Western University, who seem to have found a way to prevent the cell death at the core of the disease.

Dr. Michael Strong is a professor of neurology at Western University’s Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry and the Arthur J. Hudson Chair in ALS Research. “This is a breakthrough going forward, but we’ve got the hurdles ahead of us and let’s see where we land,” says Strong.

How did they make this discovery? How does it work so far in experiments? And why is this step turning heads around throughout the medical world?

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