The Sean M. Healey & AMG Center for ALS Awards the Fifth Annual Drs. Ayeez and Shelena Lalji & Family ALS Endowed Award for Innovative Healing to Frank Bradke, PhD

The Sean M. Healey & AMG Center at Massachusetts General Brigham is thrilled to award the fifth annual Drs. Ayeez and Shelena Lalji & Family ALS Endowed Award for Innovative Healing to Dr. Frank Bradke, for deciphering the mechanisms underlying axon growth and to tune them for regeneration, which has recently been clinically translated.

The prize was presented to Dr. Bradke during the 36th International Symposium on ALS/MND in San Diego, California by Shelena Lalji, MD, FACOG, Founder of ALS Heroes, and Merit Cudkowicz, MD, MSc, Director of the Healey & AMG Center and Executive Director of the Mass General Brigham Neuroscience Institute.

The Drs. Ayeez and Shelena Lalji & Family ALS Endowed Award for Innovative Healing is made possible by the generous support of the Lalji family, in honor of Dr. Ayeez Lalji, who was diagnosed in 2017 and lived bravely and valiantly with ALS for 7 years. The award aims to recognize excellence in transformative scientific discoveries focused on repair of neurological function in ALS.

“My family and I would like to congratulate Dr. Bradke and his team for their incredible work,” says Dr. Shelena Lalji. “This award is in honor of all the ALS Heroes who live with this disease and those doing their part to eradicate it, and especially, my beloved late husband, Dr. Ayeez Lalji, whose courage, generosity, and unwavering devotion to others continue to illuminate our path. His life was a testament to quiet strength, profound compassion, and the belief that even in the face of unimaginable challenge, we can choose purpose over pain. Through the Lalji ALS Foundation, his legacy lives on—fueling innovation, uplifting families, and reminding us that one life lived well with heart can change the world.”

Dr. Bradke, a neuroscientist at the German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE) and professor at the University of Bonn, predicted that reactivating the axonal growth pathways may support regeneration in the adult central nervous system (CNS) after injury. To date, his team has led major discoveries in this area by identifying molecular regeneration pathways and testing clinically approved drugs to reactivate axonal growth, leading to functional recovery in animal models of spinal cord injury. Specifically, he identified the synaptogenic gene, Cacna2d2, as well as the presynaptic protein Munc-13, as growth suppressors that prevent axonal regeneration, using an imaging technique he pioneered. With these works, Dr. Bradke established a novel concept that axon growth and synapse formation are mutually exclusive processes in neurons. This work is groundbreaking and will potentially lead to new avenues for CNS regeneration.

“This prize is very special to me,” says Dr. Bradke. “It gives a great recognition to the research of our team. For this, I am deeply grateful to the members of the selection committee. The prize will keep inspiring us towards new discoveries and furthering the translation of our research into ALS and other neurodegenerative diseases.”

“Dr. Bradke’s ability to find new approaches to tackle problems is inspiring and we are excited to support his work with this award,” said Dr. Cudkowicz. “We are grateful to the Lalji Family for fostering this kind of groundbreaking work in repair of neurological function in ALS.”

The Drs. Ayeez and Shelena Lalji & Family ALS Endowed Award for Innovative Healing is an annual, global prize with the goal of identifying therapies and modalities to regain lost function in people living with ALS. Learn more about this $40,000 USD prize and how to nominate an individual or team for the annual award.

About the Sean M. Healey & AMG Center for ALS at Mass General

At the Sean M. Healey & AMG Center for ALS at Mass General Brigham, we are committed to bringing together a global network of scientists, physicians, nurses, foundations, federal agencies, and people living with ALS, their loved ones, and caregivers to accelerate the pace of ALS therapy discovery and development.

Launched in November 2018, the Healey & AMG Center, under the leadership of Merit Cudkowicz, MD and a Science Advisory Council of international experts, is reimagining how to develop and test the most promising therapies to treat the disease, identify cures and ultimately prevent it.

With many clinical trials and lab-based research studies in progress right now, we are ushering in a new phase of ALS treatment and care. Together, we will find the cures.

About ALS Heroes

The ALS Heroes Foundation is an organization committed to bringing awareness and innovation to finding a cure for ALS while supporting and caring for individuals living with the disease. By leveraging technology and promoting quality-of-life measures, we aim to honor and empower the true heroes of the ALS community.

Learn more about ALS Heroes here.