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U of M scientist receives $100K ALS research grant

A University of Moncton scientist has received a $100,000 grant from the Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) Society of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia.

Pier Jr. Morin, 35, is a biochemistry professor who has done extensive research on brain tumours which has implications in the field of ALS research.

Sometimes called Lou Gehrig's disease, ALS is a fatal neurodegenerative disease that currently affects up to 3,000 Canadians.

According to a statement released on Thursday, the grant will be funded over a two-year period by ALS Canada and Brain Canada.

A New Brunswick collaboration

Prof. Morin says the work he is doing is part of a collaborative effort with doctors and other researchers in the province, aimed at finding new ways of diagnosing ALS early and accurately.

"We're looking at small, non-coding RNAs [ribonucleic acid molecules] ... this is a family of RNAs that seems to regulate a whole bunch of cellular processes and physical processes in your body and we've been looking at these molecules from a therapeutic perspective."

Morin's main field of research has been an aggressive brain tumour, called a glioblastoma. He said in discussions with Moncton neurologist Dr. Alier Marrero, they realized there could be implications in his research for people with ALS.

'We just realized it might be an interesting thing to actually look at my molecules in his patients and this is how the … research project was born."

Technique developed in Moncton

Morin says his work will be helped by a technique developed in Moncton at the Atlantic Cancer Research Institute that allows for the separation of tiny vesicles from blood molecules.

He says in patients with different medical conditions, whether it is a brain tumour or ALS, neuro cells will shed these tiny vesicles that have different molecules inside.

"The technique allows us to isolate these vesicles from patients' blood … we're going to be pulling these little vesicles from blood samples collected from ALS patients."

Morin says the goal is not only to eventually be able to diagnose ALS earlier, but also to be able to figure out which type of ALS is present. He says the $100,000 will be a major boost to this work.

"This basically doubles our operating income, our research income, for a year, so this is quite tremendous."