About ALS
Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a progressive, fatal, neurodegenerative disease that affects an estimated 350,000 individuals around the world at any given time. Despite common patterns of symptoms, ALS manifests differently from individual to individual. The mechanisms that govern ALS onset and progression in most people are either unknown or poorly understood.
ALS doesn’t have a cure yet, but increased attention and investment from public and private funders over the last two decades have generated critical progress and momentum. In 2021, Tambourine partnered with the Milken Institute Center for Strategic Philanthropy to review the ALS scientific and funding landscapes and identify opportunities for strategic philanthropic investments. This analysis revealed that an incomplete understanding of the disease’s fundamental biology and mechanisms remains a central, underfunded scientific barrier.
ALS Breakthrough Research Fund
The ALS Breakthrough Research Fund builds on the findings of the Giving Smarter Guide by funding high-risk, high-reward, and innovative discovery-driven research proposals. This program is supported by Tambourine, the philanthropic initiative of Ben and Divya Silbermann. Drawing inspiration and drive from their family experience with ALS, their work includes funding research to enable breakthrough scientific discoveries.
This initiative seeks to change scientific understanding and improve the treatment of ALS by supporting innovative basic and discovery-focused research around the world. It particularly focuses on soliciting and funding creative, high-risk, high-reward ideas that might not otherwise fit existing grant programs but hold the potential to generate breakthrough insights.
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RFP Focus: The ALS Breakthrough Research Fund’s 2023 RFP received proposals that reflect exciting, foundational scientific directions that can shed light on ALS mechanisms, sporadic ALS, and non-inherited contributions to disease. The application window for the 2023 RFP is now closed.
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Review Process: All submitted proposals will undergo rigorous scientific peer review by an external panel of ALS and related experts. Proposals will be assessed across a number of criteria specified in the RFP. The ALS Breakthrough Research Fund’s scientific leadership – including the Scientific Advisory Board - will utilize scientific review feedback in tandem with the Fund’s strategic direction in making funding recommendations to Tambourine.
Learn more about the 2023 RFP
ALS Breakthrough Research Fund Webinar
On June 8, 2023, the Milken Institute hosted an informational session ahead of the program’s Letter of Intent deadline.
Watch Webinar
Scientific Advisory Board
Steve Finkbeiner, MD, PhD
Director, Center for Systems and Therapeutics and the Taube/Koret Center for Neurodegenerative Disease Research at Gladstone Institutes
Clotilde Lagier-Tourenne, MD, PhD
Associate Professor of Neurology, Massachusetts General Institute for Neurodegeneration
Shane Liddelow, PhD
Assistant Professor, Department of Neuroscience and Physiology at the NYU Grossman School of Medicine
Diane Re, PhD
Assistant Professor, Environmental Health Sciences at the Columbia University School of Public Health