In the beginning, not even Hynek Wichterle’s postdoc thought his idea to slow the progression of ALS had a chance.
“When Hynek proposed this, I thought it would never work and was maybe a little bit of a waste of my time,” says Emily Lowry, now co-director with Wichterle of the Project ALS Therapeutics Core at Columbia University’s Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons.
The idea itself was simple. Because aging is often the trigger for many neurodegenerative diseases—including ALS—Wichterle reasoned that restoring vulnerable neurons to a more youthful state could make the neurons more resilient to the disease’s assault and slow disease progression.
Though Lowry was initially skeptical, she took charge of the project. Funding from Project ALS helped get the research off the ground, and Lowry’s initial results not only quashed her own doubts but started to convince other skeptics and garner funding from the NIH.