Though there is no cure for ALS, there is a current treatment. The Ice Bucket Challenge raised millions for research and an Israeli treatment was discovered. Two trials were performed in Jerusalem’s Hadassah University Medical Center. Stem cell researcher Dr. Dimitrios Karussis led the trials, and he showed promising results in twenty-four patients. “In some of the parameters there was up to sixty percent beneficial response after the treatment. We hope in the next three months we will have a paper ready to be published,” said Karussis.

Karussis treated four ALS patients in an advanced stage of disease. They received NurOwn transplants that started in 2012, and all four are alive. “All four had, at least for three to six months, a response of improvement in respiratory function or muscle power,” said Karussis.

Brainstorm CEO Dr. Tony Fiorino said that forty-eight patients will participate in a double blind, multicenter randomized trial based in the University of Massachusetts Memorial Hospital. The patients will receive NurOwn stem cells and some will receive a placebo. The study will be completed in early 2016.

Fiorino said, “This is really a platform technology with applications outside of ALS, though ALS is our lead indicator. The cells can apply in any disease where neurons are dying.”

ALS is a terrible disease, and ninety percent of ALS patients die of respiratory distress within three to five years. The Ice Bucket Challenge helped dramatically. The heavy awareness and money raised helped produce working treatments, and hopefully in the near future after studies a cure will be found.