Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis

Credits

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Annotated Bibliography | Mentorship Description | Image Credits | ALS Links | Contact

Annotated Bibliography

ALS Association. (6 January 2004) <http://www.alsa.org>.

The ALS Association is the national non-profit organization dedicated to increasing ALS awareness and leads the world in funding for ALS research. I used info from the site to increase the list of symptoms, and learned about genetic testing for SOD1 mutations. I used ALSA's website to obtain information on current ALS research, facts, and statistics.

ALS Division - MDA. (6 January 2004) <http://www.als.mdausa.org>.

The Muscular Dystrophy Association is another major organization that funds for research in neuromuscular diseases. Many useful articles can be found in MDA's ALS Division, and I used info from some of the articles in the research and causes of ALS pages.

Alsod.org. 2002. (5 January 2004) <http://www.alsod.org>.

A database of genetic information for ALS, Alsod was helpful in finding out the number of mutations there were in the SOD1 gene. I got the gene sequence by making the SOD1 sequence on Alsod.org into an image.

Atchison, Dan. Phone Interview. 9 January 2004.

I knew Dan before his brother was diagnosed with ALS, and it was him getting the disease that I first learned about ALS. I became interested in ALS's effects, and thus chose it for the topic of this site. Dan was helpful in answering my questions regarding his brother, and the interview I conducted led me to write the article seen on this site.

Chamberlain, Jeffrey S. E-mail Interview. 14 January 2004.

Dr. Chamberlain is a neurology professor specializing in muscular dystrophies at the UW School of Medicine. He was helpful in providing me information on current ALS research and helping me learn more about genes and their involvement in ALS.

"Drug Testing Process." ALS Therapy Development Foundation. 2004. (11 December 2003) <http://www.als-tdf.org/alstdf/aboutus/science/drugscreening.asp>.

The ALS Therapy Development Foundation is a non-profit biotechnology company testing out various drugs to find an effective treatment for ALS. It gave me useful data on the SOD1 mouse models and a broad scope of some of the drugs being tested.

Eshleman Family. ALS Survival Guide. 2003. (10 December 2003) <http://www.lougehrigsdisease.net/>.

The ALS Survival Guide is run by the Eshleman Family, who had a member die of ALS in 2001. There is basically everything a person would need to know about ALS on the site, with information from causes, treatment, etc. to things such as legal problems and advocacy. I used info to make the list of symptoms, diagnosis and causes pages, and a few statistics. Also, I took the ALS Functional Rating Scale from this site.

Gaudette, Mara, et. al. "Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis Overview." Gene Tests. 10 February 2004. (11 December 2003) <http://www.geneclinics.org/profiles/als-overview/>.

Developed at the UW, GeneTests provides information on the medical genetics of diseases. I used some of the data on the ALS page for the causes page of this site.

Majoor-Krakauer, Danielle, et. al. "Genetic Epidemiology of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis." Clinical Genetics 2003: 63: 83-101.

A review article sent to me by Dr. Zabetian, it provided a very in-depth view on the genetic causes of ALS. I used it to give descriptions of the various types of FALS.

United States. National Institutes of Health. National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke. NINDS Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis Information Page. 1 July 2001. (7 January 2004). <http://www.ninds.nih.gov/health_and_medical/disorders/ amyotrophiclateralsclerosis_doc.htm>.

The National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke is part of the larger government organization, the National Institutes of Health. I read through the ALS overview and factsheets on the site and pulled some facts I didn't know before, primarily those in treatment, and incorporated that into the site.

United States. National Institutes of Health. National Library of Medicine. National Center for Biotechnology Information. 26 January 2004. (5 January 2004). <http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov>.

NCBI is a government site that allows a person to search their database for the latest articles on anything related to biotechnology. I browsed through some of the articles, and pulled some information on research. There was also a gene viewer at NCBI where I was able to look at the locus of the SOD1 gene (the image itself did not fit on this site).

Wade, Mary Dodson. ALS - Lou Gehrig's Disease. Berkeley Heights, NJ: Enslow Publishers, 2001.

The author of the book, Mary Dodson Wade, had lost a friend to ALS and wrote the book after compiling information from a variety of sources, including those such as the ALSA. I used information on Lou Gehrig, neurons, and the history of ALS from the book. I also added more information about the causes, diagnosing, and treatment of ALS.

Zabetian, Cyrus. E-mail Request. 28 December 2003.

Dr. Zabetian is Acting Assistant Professor of Neurology at the UW School of Medicine, and although he was unable to be my mentor, he sent me the article "Genetic Epidemiology of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis," which was a huge help to assembling the FALS section of this site.

Mentorship Description

Dr. Jeff Chamberlain
Dept. of Neurology, Box 357720
University of Washington School of Medicine
1959 NE Pacific St.
Seattle, WA 98195-7720
Phone: 206-221-5363
Fax: 206-616-8272
E-mail: [email protected]

Dr. Chamberlain is a professor of neurology, medicine, and biochemistry at the University of Washington School of Medicine. A researcher of muscular dystrophies--focusing mostly on Duchenne's Muscular Dystrophy--Dr. Chamberlain spends much of his time training students, planning experiments, and evaluating data from labs. I met Dr. Chamberlain in my search for a mentor, when I had sent out e-mails to various neurologists at the UW. Dr. Chamberlain was very kind in agreeing to be my mentor.

In the beginning, we used e-mail as our primary means of keeping in contact. The first conversation we actually had was over the phone, where I explained the basics of my project. I got a good explanation on biological markers from my mentor, amid ALS's relationship to other diseases, such as Duchenne's Muscular Dystrophy. Afterwards, we kept in contact a couple times a week for a couple weeks, and the interview was done in e-mail format. In the interview, I inquired about ALS research, and Dr. Chamberlain explained to me about research going on at the UW. I learned how gene therapy worked and how stem cells could benefit ALS patients. Dr. Chamberlain was also the one who recommended using the Muscular Dystrophy Association's website to find some of the most recent happenings in ALS research. He had also agreed to review this site upon completion.

The mentorship experience was a whole new thing for me. At first I was hesitant in going out on my own and finding a mentor, but once I got into things a bit, I came to realize that talking to a person knowledgeable in your field of study is a valuable thing. Unlike a book or a website, a mentor knows what you are looking for and provides the right kind of help when needed. With a mentor, you get a second opinion on how your project is proceeding, and will be less likely to fall out of track. One thing that needs to always be remembered, though, is regular communication. I admit that I should have contacted my mentor more often. Meeting with my mentor would have been a good idea as well, to not only get to know one another better, but for knowing exactly what is expected of a mentor and mentee. In the future, I am confident that I would be able to take a mentorship farther than before.

Image Credits

Home

Lou Gehrig - http://theangelfund.org/images/lou_large.jpg

Introduction

The human brain - http://www.informeddecision.com/images/brain.gif
Motor neuron - http://www.columbiaals.org/img/pictures/picture-what-is-als.jpg (picture edited)
Affected neuron - http://www.alsa.org/graphics/nervesimage.gif

Forms

Autosomal dominant inheritance - http://www.mdausa.org/images/fa-md-210dom.gif
Autosomal recessive inheritance - http://www.mdausa.org/images/fa-md-210rec.gif

Causes

Excitotoxicity - http://www.mdausa.org/images/als/als73_glutamate.gif
Combination of factors - http://www.lougehrigsdisease.net/images/als_illus.gif
Chromosome 21 - http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/SCIENCE96/Chr21.gif

SOD1 Gene Sequence

Gene sequence - http://alsod1.iop.kcl.ac.uk/reports/genes/viewSOD1GeneDetails.cfm (cut and made into image)

Diagnosis

MRI - http://www.braintumor.org/pservices/images/MRI.jpg
DNA fragments - http://www.drwebsa.com.ar/aam/images/33_01_15.gif

Treatment

Rilutek� - http://www.lougehrigsdisease.net/images/rilbottle.gif
Wheelchair - http://www.accessibleenvironments.net/images/heavyd1.jpg

Research

Pills - http://www.boc.com/microsite/america/gasmarkt/images/pills.jpg
Prescription drugs - http://www.medicalmalpracticeattorneys.com/images/prescription-drugs.gif
Genes - http://www.som.tulane.edu/gradprograms/Images/human-genes.gif
Gene therapy - http://www.mdausa.org/images/als/als89_virus.jpg
Stem cell - http://image.pathfinder.com/time/daily/special/genetics/images/cell.jpg
SOD1 mouse - http://www.drexel.edu/med/Research/images/ALS_mouse.jpg

A True Case

Vash Stampede - supplied by Dan Atchison

(Miscellaneous)

ALS ribbon - http://www.lougehrigsdisease.net/images/alsribembuss.jpg

- Javascript taken from Dynamic Drive -

ALS Links

The ALS Association
National Office
27001 Agoura Road, Suite 150
Calabasas Hills, CA 91301
Tel: (818) 880-9007
http://www.alsa.org

Muscular Dystrophy Association - USA
National Headquarters
3300 E Sunrise Drive
Tucson, AZ 85718
Tel: (800) 572-1717
http://www.mdausa.org

Contact

For questions concerning the content or making of this site, e-mail Joy Chan: [email protected]