Helping Hands

Bringing Support to the Community

Outside of the doctor's office are a group of organizations who are dedicated to providing support to the research and treatment of neurodegenerative diseases.

Nonprofit organizations bring raise awarness for the general public, which leads to more financial support for research facilities and patients themselves.

Team Gleason

Team Gleason's mission is to improve life for people living with ALS by delivering innovative technology and equipment, as well as providing and empowering an improved life experience.

As of 2021, Team Gleason has provided over $18 million in technology, equipment, adventures, and care services to over 20,000 people living with ALS and countless others through advocacy, support and ultimately bringing an end to the disease.

Research Assets
  • Google’s Project Euphonia is an early-stage research effort to improve speech recognition software so people with impaired speech can be understood by—and access—this technology.
  • Microsoft's Project Insight is an open dataset of facial imagery of people living with ALS, to help advance innovation in computer vision and broaden the input potential for connectivity and communication.
Clinical Assets
  • Voice Banking creates a synthesized or “computerized” version of a person's natural speaking voice.
  • BCH Message Banking™ is a way of digitally recording and storing words, phrases, sentences, personally meaningful sounds and/or stories using a person's natural voice, inflection and intonation.
Additional Assets
  • Ability Drive: Team Gleason challenged Microsoft to create a method for people to navigate their power wheelchairs by using only their eyes. They succeeded with a prototype and Tolt Technologies improved and made the device available for all who need this advanced technology.
  • Home Automation: Team Gleason innovates for expanded tools to assist with home automation for added independence.
  • Advocacy: Steve Gleason and Team Gleason have advocated for and helped pass 3 laws in the last 10 years to help those with ALS, many neurodegenerative disorders, and spinal cord injuries.

Answer ALS

Answer ALS is building the most comprehensive clinical, genetic, molecular & biochemical assessment of ALS, while openly sharing the results with the global research community.

Through a collaboration of 8 clinics and nearly 2 dozen institutions and organizations, and over 1000 patient participants, Answer ALS is the single largest and most comprehensive ALS study in the world.

Research Assets
  • Answer ALS is integrating results from this multi-omics approach and is providing an unprecedented level of analysis that will help the global research community identify new mechanisms of disease initiation and progression, as well as reveal new targets for diagnosis, prophylaxis, and treatment. In short, the mission is to use these results to find an answer to an individual's type of ALS. Answer ALS is where Big Data meets Precision Medicine.
  • In January 2021, Answer ALS launched its Neuromine Data Portal.
  • In one year, nearly 200 new research projects have begun directly from the open-source data and samples.
Clinical Assets
  • Since closing enrollment for the initial phase of 1000 participants, Answer ALS launched the ALS Companion App. The goal of this study is to determine if the tasks within the Companion App can be used to help track disease progression, while not in a clinic setting.
  • National collaboration
  • Global data sharing and program partnerships