The Live Like Lou Foundation is proud to announce two outstanding recipients of the 2025 Live Like Lou Postdoctoral Fellowship, a program created to encourage and expand the number of investigators leading innovative neurodegenerative disease research to find treatments or cures for Lou Gehrig’s disease.

Each fellow receives up to $75,000 per year for up to two years to pursue projects that address key unanswered questions in ALS pathology and open new possibilities for therapy.

Are neuronal stress granules in ALS helpful or harmful?

‍Dr. Tereza Filipi
Research Centre of the University of Montreal Hospital (CRCHUM), Montreal, QC

Dr. Tereza Filipi’s research focuses on how brain cells (neurons) cope with stress. When healthy cells are under stress, they create tiny temporary “shelters” called stress granules that help them survive. For years, scientists thought these granules might be harmful in ALS, but Dr. Filipi’s work suggests they may play a protective role instead.

This project will test whether these stress granules help or hurt neurons in ALS using advanced live cell models to observe their behavior. Understanding this process could lead to new treatments that support the cell’s natural stress defenses.

“Dr. Filipi’s work will reveal whether neuronal stress granules are allies or adversaries in ALS paving the way for strategies to harness the cell’s own defenses. Dr. Traxler’s innovative approach links cellular metabolism to protein regulation aiming to uncover and potentially reverse mechanisms that undermine motor neuron resilience," said Evangelos Kiskinis, PhD, scientific director of the Live Like Lou Foundation. "Together, their research strengthens our research into ALS at its earliest and most vulnerable points.

How does metabolism affects key proteins in ALS?

Dr. Larissa Traxler
University of California, San Diego

Even in genetic forms of ALS, nerve cells that control movement (motor neurons) often stay healthy for years before symptoms begin. Dr. Larissa Traxler wants to understand why these cells eventually lose that resilience. Her research studies how changes in metabolism (how cells use energy) can disrupt the balance of specific proteins that manage RNA, which helps cells make proteins.

When a molecule called acetyl-CoA builds up in the wrong part of the cell, it may cause these RNA-binding proteins to malfunction, interfering with critical steps in how neurons function. Dr. Traxler uses specialized motor neurons made directly from patients’ skin cells, an approach that retains the unique features of aging neurons, to study these processes more accurately.

By restoring the normal balance of acetyl-CoA, she aims to discover whether these harmful disruptions can be reversed, potentially keeping neurons healthier for longer.

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“Our Postdoctoral Fellowship program invests in the next generation of ALS scientists, empowering them to pursue bold ideas that could transform our understanding of the disease,” said Wendy Faust, executive director of the Live Like Lou Foundation. “Dr. Filipi and Dr. Traxler exemplify the curiosity, rigor, and determination needed to tackle ALS from fresh angles, and we are thrilled to support their research journeys.”

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