UF and the University of California at Los Angeles are using artificial stem cells in an attempt to cure Lou Gehrig's disease.
The schools will apply for another five-year grant from the National Institute of Health, which has funded collaborative research on the disease between UF, UCLA and the University of Texas since 2005.
The current grant will expire in April.
According to UF neuroscience professor David Borchelt, if the grant is awarded, a team from UF and UCLA will try to find the cause of the disease, technically called Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis. Its more informal name comes from former Yankees player Lou Gehrig, who retired in 1938 because of his illness.
According to Borchelt, the team will request $5 million to be disbursed in $1 million increments over the next five years.
"We are asking for the most money possible for the project," he said.
According to Borchelt, most of the money will go to UCLA, which will have three labs working on the project, whereas UF will have one lab.
While UF will continue to use cultured cells, UCLA biochemistry professor Julian Whitelegge, who has worked on the project since its advent in 2005, said the biggest change to the project will be adding an artificially made stem cell model.
Whitelegge said in the next five years he hopes to find a way to slow the progression of the disease and develop a drug that can stop it.
There are about 5,000 new cases a year in North America and only 500 are the inherited version, which the project focuses on, Borchelt said.
There are more than 30 different types of inherited ALS, and each type gives a different life expectancy for the victim, said Mercedes Prudencio, a UF doctoral student on Borchelt's team.
In some cases, a person can have a year and a half before being put on a respirator, Prudencio said. But in other cases, a person won't see serious effects for 20 years or more.
Stephen Hawking, a professor at Cambridge University known for his publications, has suffered from ALS most of his adult life. Diagnosed at the age of 21, Hawking, now 67, uses a machine to help him speak.
According to his Web site, his condition has progressed more slowly than an average case of ALS.
"It is sad to see people paralyzed, conscious and [still understanding] everything," he said.
