Salute e Benessere
£7.5 million Longitude Prize on ALS launches
Although some very limited treatments exist to slow the progression of ALS for a short time, its complexity means there are no long-term treatments and no cure. For the first time, however, AI advances mean innovators have the opportunity to outpace the disease.
The Prize is principally funded by the Motor Neurone Disease Association and designed and delivered by Challenge Works, supported by Nesta. Additional funders include Nesta, the Alan Davidson Foundation, My Name'5 Doddie Foundation, LifeArc, FightMND, The 10,000 Brains Project, Answer ALS and The Packard Center at Johns Hopkins .
Seeking innovators from across medical research, biotech, techbio, pharmaceuticals and AI, the Prize will initially reward the 20 most promising entrants with £100,000 each in early 2026. Teams will be judged on the potential for their approach to identify and validate drug targets driving understanding of the disease and supporting onward translation into drug discovery.
The entry window closes on 3 December 2025 . The 20 successful entrants will be named in the first half of 2026.
Successful applicants will gain access to the largest collection of ALS patient data of its kind via DNANexus, hosted on Amazon Web Services, provided in partnership with Project MinE, Answer ALS, New York Genome Center (NYGC), ALS Compute and the ALS Therapy Development Institute.
Ten teams will progress to a second stage, receiving £200,000 in 2027 to build the evidence base for their proposed therapeutic targets. In 2028, five teams will then receive £500,000 to undertake validation of the highest potential identified targets. The £1 million grand prize will be awarded in 2031.
For more information visit als.longitudeprize.org
als@seven-consultancy.com (+44 (0)20 7754 3610)
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