The biotechnology firm BrainStorm has inked an agreement with Hadasit, the TTO of Israel’s Hadassah Medical Organization’s, to conduct joint clinical trials on treatments for patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. As part of the deal, Hadassah will put its top experts in neurology and stem cell science at the disposal of BrainStorm, which is controlled by businessman Chaim Lebovits. BrainStorm, in turn, will pick up NIS $5 million of the cost of the clinical trials, which follow satisfactory animal testing of a patented process through which stem cells from a patient’s own bone marrow are treated and turned into nerve cells in the laboratory, then injected back into the ALS patient. The developers of the process hope to show that they can delay and even halt the progress of the disease. Success in developing a treatment for ALS could open the door to a $1 billion market.<\/p>\n