This financial grant has an annual payout of up to $100,000 for up to two years. It is awarded to a tenure-track junior investigator (assistant professor level or equivalent) within 5 years of starting their own independent group/lab and has not yet received their first RO1-level grant.
2019—Dr. Veronique Belzil, Mayo Clinic of Florida; and Dr. Manolis Kellis, MIT
2020—Dr. Aaron Haeusler, Thomas Jefferson University
2021—Dr. Stephanie Moon, University of Michigan
2023—Dr. Devesh Pant, Emory University
This program aims to encourage and expand the number of investigators conducting innovative research on neurodegenerative diseases, with the goal of finding treatments or cures for ALS. This grant supports emerging scientists with an interest in ALS who are in the early stages of postdoctoral training at an academic institution or equivalent research environment. Eligible applicants must be in their first four years of postdoctoral training. The fellowship covers direct costs of up to $75,000 per year for up to two years.
2022—Dr. Daryl Fields, University of Pittsburgh
2023—Dr. Alexander Cammack, University College London; and Dr. Yifu Han, University of Southern California
2024—Dr. Gregory Mohl, University of California at San Francisco; and Dr. Carlo Scialo, University of Zurich
This Fellowship is intended to attract and encourage new researchers in PhD graduate programs conducting innovative neurodegenerative disease research aimed at finding treatments or cures for ALS. The Fellowship awards up to two graduate students enrolled in an academic institution or equivalent research environment up to $50,000 annually for up to two years to be awarded beginning April 2025.
2025—He "Lilian" Gao, University of California at San Diego; Thao Nguyen, Stanford University
Two independent reviewers with relevant expertise review each application. All applications are ranked based on average score, and the top 10 percent are considered finalists. A second independent review panel consisting of Live Like Lou Scientific Advisory Board members, reviews and discusses all applications and makes a recommendation for the award to the Live Like Lou Foundation Board of Trustees.
Sponsor or attend Live Like Lou’s scientific research programs.
Together we provide opportunities for collaboration, research partnerships, unique instruction, and grant opportunities not otherwise available to emerging ALS investigators.
University of Pittsburgh, 2018
Barrow Neurological Institute, 2020-2022
University of Michigan, 2023-2024
For awards funded by the Live Like Lou Foundation, our grants to institutions support our research priorities. As such, none of our money may be used for indirect costs, facilities, and/or administrative costs. All funds awarded by the Live Like Lou Foundation are expected to be used for research in this field (after costs, if applicable).
Live Like Lou launched virtual programming in the summer of 2020.
With the addition of virtual programming, more collaborative discussions and presentations have resulted. Live Like Lou now hosts at least two hybrid speakers series events each year in addition to its biennial in-person event.
The pace of change in ALS research and our hope for future treatments and cures for ALS increase when communities come together. Live Like Lou is proud to have funded research at two world-class institutions to date:
Funded during Live Like Lou’s grassroots days in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Neil and Suzanne Alexander were devoted to advancing ALS research upon Neil’s diagnosis with Lou Gehrig’s disease. With the funds raised from 2011–15, the Live Like Lou Center for ALS Research at the University of Pittsburgh Brain Institute was created. Its mission is to unlock the mysteries of normal and abnormal brain function and translate discoveries into new approaches for overcoming brain disorders. Since its inception, the brain institute has grown to include two primary investigators and leading laboratories of more than a dozen scientists. They have three patents pending and a spinoff therapeutics testing lab that went public in July 2022.
Live Like Lou teamed up with VUMC for new ALS research in Middle Tennessee. The It’s a Whole New Ballgame for ALS Research campaign has raised more than $5 million to fund new, pre-clinical, and innovative ALS science at this top-tier research institution. Learn more about the latest campaign news and fundraising success.
Live Like Lou develops its research grants, programming for emerging ALS investigators, and strategy for research investments based upon the recommendations of a volunteer Scientific Advisory Board comprised of experts in the field.
Yuna Ayala, PhD
Associate Professor and Vice Chair, Biochemistry & Molecular Biology,
Saint Louis University School of Medicine
Sami Barmada, MD, PhD
Associate Professor of Neurology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
Veronique Belzil, PhD, MS
Director, Vanderbilt ALS Research Center and Associate Professor, Department of Neurology
Claire Le Pichon, PhD
Senior Investigator, Development of Neurodegeneration, National Institutes of Health/NICHD
Evangelos Kiskinis, PhD
Associate Professor of Neurology and Neuroscience, Northwestern University; Live Like Lou Foundation Scientific Director
