Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis Clinical Trials in Philadelphia, PA

The purpose of this study is to learn more about amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and other related neurodegenerative diseases, including frontotemporal dementia (FTD), primary lateral sclerosis (PLS), hereditary spastic paraplegia (HSP), progressive muscular atrophy (PMA) and multisystem proteinopathy (MSP). More precisely, the investigator wants to identify the links that exist between the disease phenotype (phenotype refers to observable signs and symptoms) and the disease genotype (genotype refers to your genetic information). The investigator also wants to identify biomarkers of ALS and related diseases. Read Less

ARTFL LEFFTDS Longitudinal Frontotemporal Lobar Degeneration (ALLFTD) represents the formalized integration of ARTFL (U54 NS092089; funded through 2019) and LEFFTDS (U01 AG045390; funded through 2019) as a single North American research consortium to study FTLD for 2019 and beyond. Read Less

The aim of this study is to create a repository of both cross-sectional and longitudinal data, including cognitive, linguistic, imaging and biofluid biological specimens, for neurodegenerative disease research and treatment. Read Less

Brief Summary: The goal of the study is to generate a biorepository of longitudinal blood (plasma and serum), cerebral spinal fluid (CSF) and urine linked to genetics and longitudinal clinical information that are made available to the research community. To accomplish these goals, we will enroll 200 Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) patients and 80 healthy controls from multiple sites, over a 5 year time frame. Additionally, speech measures will be collected on weekly basis at home for all participants. The measurements are performed using a speech recording application installed on their personal device. For a subset of both ALS and healthy participants, we will also collect at-home vital capacity on a weekly basis. It is expected that increased frequency data sampling of these outcome measures will help in better tracking of disease progression. Biofluids and clinical information are collected over a 20-month time frame for each individual enrolled in the research study. ALS participants will be coming to clinic for 5 study visits with a 4-month interval between visits. Healthy participants will be coming for 2 study visits with a 12-month interval between visits. These samples and clinical information will be stored in a de-identified manner and made available for investigators to use in future research studies. Read Less

The purpose of this study is to investigate if a person with weakness or paralysis in one or both arms, can use the NuroSleeve combined powered arm brace (orthosis) and muscle stimulation system to help restore movement in one arm sufficient to perform daily activities. This study could lead to the development of a product that could allow people with arm weakness or arm paralysis to use the NuroSleeve and similar devices to improve arm health and independent function. Read Less