A potential treatment for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) developed by USC Stem Cell scientist Justin Ichida, PhD, is poised to enter clinical development for patients, following a recent license agreement between the pharmaceutical giant Takeda and AcuraStem, a startup co-founded by Ichida in 2016.

After developing and investigating 800 potential treatments for ALS, the Ichida Lab recently discovered that inhibiting a protein known as PIKFYVE can stave off ALS progression. AcuraStem is conducting pre-clinical studies centered on this finding while Takeda focuses on the details of clinical development, regulatory affairs and global commercialization.

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