The ALS Association Golden West Chapter Congratulates the 2014 Sheila Essey Award
for ALS Research Honoree
April 28, 2014 —
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Sheila Essey, with her husband Dick Essey
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Jeremy Shefner, MD, PhD
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Since 1996, The ALS Association, in partnership with
the American Academy of Neurology, have presented the prestigious Sheila Essey Award for ALS
Research to acknowledge and honor an individual who is actively engaged and
making significant contributions in research for the cause, treatment,
prevention or cure of ALS. The recipient receives a $25,000 prize to be used
specifically for continuing his/her ALS research or to
support promising young scientists on their research teams.
Funding of the award is made
possible because of the generosity of The Essey Family Fund, through The ALS Association Golden West Chapter, in memory of
Sheila Essey, who battled ALS for 10 years and died from the disease in
2004. Richard Essey,
Sheila's husband, served as a National Trustee of The ALS Association and is
one of the founders of the Greater Bay Area Chapter, now the Golden West Chapter.
This year’s Sheila Essey Award for ALS Research recipient is Jeremy
Shefner, M.D., Ph.D. Dr. Shefner has served as a principal investigator
for numerous ALS trials, and his leadership in clinical research has
been instrumental in accelerating the pace and improving the quality of
clinical trials for the disease.
“We are very excited to recognize Dr. Shefner’s tremendous
contributions and are delighted that he is this year’s recipient of the
Sheila Essey Award,” said Lucie Bruijn, Ph.D., M.B.A., Chief Scientist
at The ALS Association.
“I am greatly honored to be this year’s Sheila Essey award recipient
and appreciate the roles that Mr. Essey, the AAN, and The ALS
Association have played in supporting ALS research," said Dr. Shefner.
“The ALS Association has been an active partner in promoting clinical
research in ALS and has funded much of the work that has led to my
receiving this award.”
Earlier in his career, Dr. Shefner developed expertise in
electrodiagnostic medicine and used that knowledge to develop motor unit
number estimate (MUNE) as an objective biomarker to track ALS disease
progression. MUNE is now used in several ALS clinical trials, and the
techniques he developed have become standard for its application in the
field.
In 1995, Dr. Shefner co-founded the Northeast ALS Clinical Trials Consortium (NEALS)
along with Merit Cudkowicz, M.D., M.Sc., to coordinate ALS clinical
trials among nine centers in the northeastern United States. Today,
NEALS includes more than 100 member sites across North America and
elsewhere. In recognition of the vital work done by NEALS, The
Association’s Translational Research Advancing Therapy for ALS (TREAT ALS™) program has provided support for its programs for the past six years.
Dr. Shefner has also been the principal investigator of numerous ALS
trials, most recently leading a multinational, double-blind Phase II
trial involving the use of the skeletal muscle activator for
Cytokinetics’ drug tirasemtiv. Tirasemtiv increases
muscle sensitivity to calcium release. In initial trials, this drug’s
function involved increasing muscle force, potentially aiding activities
of daily living for people with ALS.
Dr. Shefner will receive this award on May 1, 2014 at the AAN’s annual meeting in Philadelphia. Pa.
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