Sean M. Healey & AMG Center for ALS Announces Design with Inflammasome Therapeutics for Upcoming Healey ALS MyMatch Trial

The Sean M. Healey & AMG Center for ALS at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) has contracted with Inflammasome Therapeutics to design a new Healey ALS MyMatch trial evaluating Kamuvudine-9 (K9) in people with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).

The Healey ALS MyMatch program is reshaping the future of ALS clinical trials by harnessing the power of biomarker-driven personalized trial approaches. By integrating comprehensive genetic and biofluid biomarkers, the program matches subgroups of ALS individuals to various experimental therapies based on their disease markers. ALS MyMatch is an ongoing series of early-phase clinical trials (Phase 1b/2a), aimed at deepening the understanding of biological effects of experimental products, and identifying the optimal population for future phases 2/3 clinical trials.

In response to the Healey & AMG Center’s Spring 2025 call for applications, Inflammasome Therapeutics was one of the first companies selected for inclusion in ALS MyMatch.

Inflammasome Therapeutics’ investigational product, K9, is a first-in-class multi-inflammasome inhibitor. “This oral drug has shown promising preliminary anti-inflammatory effects in ongoing clinical trials in eye diseases and neuroprotective effects in preclinical models of several neuroinflammatory diseases. Also, in multiple human ALS patient-derived motoneurons, K9 has shown preliminary evidence of reducing neurofilament light (NfL) chain levels, a prognostic biomarker in ALS clinical trials. We are honored to collaborate with the Healey & AMG Center on this exciting trial to explore whether K9 could benefit individuals with ALS,” states Jayakrishna Ambati, MD, co-founder of Inflammasome Therapeutics.

“We look forward to collaborating with Inflammasome Therapeutics to potentially identify novel therapeutic strategies for individuals affected by this disease,” states Merit Cudkowicz, MD, MSc, Director of the Healey & AMG Center and Inaugural Executive Director of the Mass General Brigham Neuroscience Institute. “Early phase discovery trials are critical to understand dosing, target engagement and population prior to embarking on efficacy trials. This is an area that has not been funded sufficiently; and where therapy development often slows down tremendously. ALS MyMatch is an initiative to help fill this gap and accelerate early discovery trials to improve later stage efficacy trials.”

“This trial with Inflammasome Therapeutics marks another meaningful step in ALS drug development, where ALS MyMatch continues to march forward for value-informed, early-phase trials that generate proof-of-concept data and deepen our understanding of the disease,” states Suma Babu, MBBS, MPH, Principal Investigator of ALS MyMatch and Co-Director, Neurological Clinical Research Institute (NCRI) at MGH. “Because of the generous philanthropic support of our donors and the ACE program, enthusiastic participation of our ALS families and dedication of our colleagues at the NCRI coordination center and trial sites, we are using smart tools and new ideas to build faster trials and easier access for our ALS families through ALS MyMatch.”

ALS MyMatch is a multi-site collaborative initiative that currently brings together four trial-ready, high enrolling ALS research centers and is a Network of Excellence for ALS (NEALS) Consortium affiliated program. Research centers include MGH in Boston; University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, Minn.; Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill.; and Nova Southeastern University in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. ALS MyMatch has partnered with the Acceleration Centers of Enrollment (ACE) program, a community-driven philanthropic partnership program focused on expediting start up and recruitment at study centers. Additional trials and high performing sites will be added as the program grows. Organizations can apply on the ALS MyMatch website.

For more information about ALS MyMatch, please visit: massgeneral.org/neurology/als/research/healey-mymatch

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

At the Sean M. Healey & AMG Center for ALS at Mass General, 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 the Neurological Clinical Research Institute

The Neurological Clinical Research Institute (NCRI) at Mass General is an academic research organization composed of innovative researchers experienced and passionate about designing, developing, facilitating, and conducting multicenter clinical trials in neurological diseases. Our mission is to accelerate translational research in neurological disorders by initiating clinical development of novel therapies and leading trials of these compounds. We strive to be at the cutting edge of innovative trial design to accelerate therapy development by creating new trial methodology, discovering novel biomarkers and refining outcome measures.