A new international challenge prize has been launched to transform drug discovery for ALS, the most common form of Motor Neurone Disease (MND), through artificial intelligence (AI). The Longitude Prize on ALS is a £7 million initiative designed to drive global collaboration between biomedical researchers and technology innovators, accelerating the search for effective treatments.
The Longitude Prize on ALS is delivered by Challenge Works, a global leader in challenge prize design and delivery. It is principally funded by the MND Association. The prize is backed by a broad coalition of international funders and organisations, including the Alan Davidson Foundation, My Name’5 Doddie Foundation, Answer ALS, The Packard Centre at Johns Hopkins, The 10,000 Brains Project, and Fight MND.
The Prize will award £7 million in funding, distributed over multiple phases, to incentivise interdisciplinary researchers and technology developers to use advanced AI approaches to identify and validate new drug targets for ALS.
At the heart of the Prize is a unique and powerful proposition: by bringing together previously siloed ALS datasets into a single, accessible platform, the initiative will provide researchers with one of the largest and most comprehensive ALS data collections ever assembled.
“We’ve never had this level of access to ALS data – and now, with AI tools evolving rapidly, we have an opportunity to find answers faster,” said a Challenge Works spokesperson.
Harnessing AI to unlock insights
The use of AI and machine learning in biomedical research is skyrocketing, and for good reason. These tools allow scientists to analyse vast and complex datasets far more quickly and efficiently than traditional methods. AI could prove transformational in the context of ALS, where drug discovery has long been hindered by the disease’s complexity and fragmented data.
By applying AI to this newly integrated dataset, researchers may be able to uncover molecular targets in the body that are most likely to respond to therapeutic intervention, significantly speeding up the timeline for drug discovery and development.
The Prize is not just about technical innovation – it’s about creating the right ecosystem for collaboration. It aims to bring together people with lived experience, academic experts, AI specialists, and biotech/pharma stakeholders to solve one of the most urgent problems in neurodegeneration.
Driving global attention and urgency
Beyond its scientific goals, the Longitude Prize on ALS is a bold statement about the urgent need for continued focus, collaboration, and investment in ALS research. Despite promising recent developments, MND remains an incurable condition, and people diagnosed with ALS typically face a life expectancy of just a few years.
While the UK government’s 2022 pledge of £50 million for MND research over five years was a welcome and hard-won commitment, it remains a fraction of the annual investments made into other significant diseases such as cancer (£112m) and dementia (£160m).
By drawing global attention to the potential of AI and the power of coordinated data sharing, the Prize hopes to help redress this imbalance and inspire further investment in the future of ALS research.
A step change in how we search for treatments
The launch of the Longitude Prize on ALS marks a significant step forward in the global fight against MND. By aligning cutting-edge technology with real-world patient needs and breaking down long-standing barriers to data access and collaboration, it offers fresh hope that new drug targets—and ultimately effective treatments—can be found.
Professor Ammar Al-Chalabi, Director of the UK Motor Neuron Disease Research Institute, said:
“Innovative approaches to drug discovery could be game-changing in terms of how we understand ALS. Using AI-led innovation to uncover specific molecules in the body linked to the disease that can be targeted with a drug is the first step to discovering effective treatments. The opportunity The Longitude Prize on ALS presents is huge.”
Visit the Challenge Works website to learn more about the Longitude Prize on ALS, including how to apply.
