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Dementia & Cognitive Impairment

Dementia and cognitive impairment mean that a person’s ability to remember and to think clearly deteriorates. This happens over a period of time, sometimes quite a long period, and although there is no cure for dementia, there are some drugs that may be helpful, particularly in the early stages.

Industry News | May 11, 2026 | No Comments |

Longitude Prize on ALS

Update: Longitude Prize on ALS – Discovery Award winners announced

The Longitude Prize on ALS is awarding £2 million to 20 of the world’s most promising multidisciplinary teams of innovators using AI to find new drug targets for ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis) – the most common form of MND (motor neurone disease).

The £7.5 million global challenge prize is incentivising and rewarding cutting edge AI-based approaches to transform drug discovery to treat ALS. Following a global call to action in June 2025, almost 100 teams representing the world’s leading universities, technology giants, advanced medical research organisations and AI pioneers entered the prize.

Twenty of the most promising entrants have received “Discovery Awards” of £100,000 each, based on their potential to use AI to identify and validate drug targets. Identifying drug targets will drive understanding of the disease and support future drug discovery.

The successful awardees include:

● King’s College London (UK) in partnership with GlaxoSmithKline and Bielefeld University (Germany).

● Aperture Therapeutics (USA) in partnership with Harvard Medical School and Tufts University.

● Paris Brain Institute (France) in partnership with Simmunome (Canada) and Servier (France).

● ALS Therapy Development Institute (USA) in partnership with Google Cloud.

● Translational Neurodegeneration, German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases, Rostock/Greifswald (Germany) in partnership with Gladstone Institutes (USA), University College London (UK), Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (Belgium), the University of Edinburgh (UK), the National University of Singapore (Singapore) and Stockholm University (Sweden)

● The University of Pennsylvania (USA).

Key access to comprehensive dataset

The 20 teams now have access to the largest and most comprehensive ALS patient dataset of its kind, combining multiple types of biological information which have not been available in one place previously – including the genomic sequences of 9,000 ALS patients and epigenomics, transcriptomics, and proteomics data for over 2,000 cases.

During this first round of the prize, the teams will draw on the diverse expertise within each team to identify the most promising drug targets with the help of AI.

Further stages of the Longitude Prize

In 2027, ten of the teams will progress to a second stage, receiving a further £200,000 to build the evidence base for their proposed therapeutic targets in silico and in the lab. In 2028, five teams will then receive £500,000 to undertake validation of the highest potential identified targets in the wet lab.

The winning team will be announced in early 2031 and will be awarded £1 million for identifying and validating the target with the strongest evidence of therapeutic potential.

AI advances support innovation

Although some very limited treatments exist to slow the progression of the disease for a short time, its complexity means that there are no long-term treatments and no cure. For the first time, however, advances in AI mean innovators now have the opportunity to outpace the disease by unlocking vast quantities of patient data that have been generated in the last decade.

The Longitude Prize on ALS is principally funded by the MND Association and designed and delivered by Challenge Works, home of the Longitude Prize. Additional funders include Nesta, the Alan Davidson Foundation, My Name’5 Doddie Foundation, LifeArc, FightMND, The 10,000 Brains Project, Answer ALS and The Packard Center at Johns Hopkins.

Tris Dyson, Managing Director at Challenge Works who was diagnosed with ALS in 2023 said:

“10 months on from launch, we are celebrating 20 highly collaborative and creative consortiums who have teamed up with a shared goal in mind – to find a treatment for ALS. I was confident that the time was right to launch the Longitude Prize on ALS, given huge advances in AI. However, I didn’t quite realise just how impressive a line-up of researchers and innovators it would attract. Beating ALS requires the boldest and brightest innovators – and that’s what we have found.”

Dr Yentli Soto Albrecht (32), member of the University of Pennsylvania team who has a 95% lifetime chance of developing ALS or frontotemporal dementia, said:

“I know that, if nothing changes, I will become one of the 1 in 300 people who will develop ALS in their lifetime. Having watched what this disease took from my father, I not only grieved his loss but also faced the reality of what lay ahead for me. My world crumbled. I built another, around my MD-PhD and the work it made possible.

“I am committed to finding a treatment for ALS before the disease takes me too, a door the Longitude Prize on ALS has opened. There’s a real chance that, across these 20 teams, we discover the perfect drug target – and what an honour it is to play a part in this fight.”

Olivier Goy, ambassador of the Paris Brain Institute, said:

“Living with ALS myself, and as an ambassador of the Paris Brain Institute, I know first-hand that time is what we fight against every single day. Seeing one of our teams, the only French team among the twenty laureates of the Longitude Prize on ALS, is deeply moving, and a powerful sign that our cause is being heard. Putting artificial intelligence and the world’s best researchers to work on new therapeutic targets is exactly the kind of bold, united effort patients like me are waiting for. Initiatives like this one don’t just fund science: they keep hope alive.”

Dr Tanya Curry, Chief Executive, MND Association, said:

“Our vision is a world free from MND and this can be achieved through funding leading researchers to chase down new treatments. These 20 teams of innovators and their work can provide more understanding of this condition and potentially, one day, a cure. MND is a devastating disease, but every step forward in research brings hope. We are delighted to support the work that lies ahead in our role as principal funder.”

You can find details of all 20 Award winners on the Longitude Prize on ALS website: als.longitudeprize.org (external link will open in a new browser tab or window)

June 2025: New £7.5 million Longitude Prize on ALS has been launched

The global challenge prize will incentivise and reward cutting edge AI-based approaches to transform drug discovery for the treatment of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), which is the most common form of motor neurone disease (MND).

There is a 1 in 300 chance that a person will develop MND in their lifetime. Although limited treatments exist to slow its progression, there are no long-term treatments. This Prize could change that.

What is ALS?

ALS is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that damages the nerves in the brain and spinal cord (called motor neurones). Signals from the brain stop reaching muscles, leading to severe muscle degeneration. Eventually this affects the muscles that are used to swallow food and drink, and those used to breathe.

MND can affect adults of any age, and around 90% of cases will have ALS. In the UK, some 5,000 people are living with MND at any one time.

There are limited treatments to slow the progression of the disease for a short time, however the complexity of the disease means that there are no long-term treatments and no cure. Now for the first time, advances in AI mean innovators have the opportunity to outpace MND by unlocking vast quantities of patient data that have been generated in the last decade.

MND/ALS needs more attention

New findings from an international survey of people living with MND/ALS and loved ones of people living with MND/ALS, in the UK, USA and Australia has found that an overwhelming majority (85%) say the world needs to pay greater attention to the disease. Just 20% thought MND is considered a priority by drug developers, and only 9% say that it is a priority for their government.

85% say that technology companies and research universities should work together more closely to identify treatments for MND, with 74% saying they would like to see technology companies put AI to good use and apply it to finding a treatment.

3 in 10 people believe that long term treatments or a cure will be available for MND within a decade, with a further 18% believing it is possible by 2045. 74% of respondents said they would be happy for their, or their loved one’s, biological data to be shared with scientists and researchers to potentially help in new drug developments and treatments for MND.

How to Win The Longitude Prize on ALS

The Longitude Prize on ALS is principally funded by the MND Association and designed and delivered by Challenge Works, supported by Nesta. Additional funders include Nesta, the Alan Davidson Foundation, My Name’5 Doddie Foundation, LifeArc, FightMND, The 10,000 Brains Project, Answer ALS and The Packard Center at Johns Hopkins.

Seeking innovators from across medical research, biotech, techbio, pharmaceuticals and AI, the Prize will initially reward 20 of the most promising entrants with ‘Discovery Awards’ of £100,000 each. Teams will be judged on the potential for their approach to identify and validate drug targets driving understanding of the disease and supporting onward translation into drug discovery.

The entry window is open now and remains open until 3 December 2025. The 20 successful entrants will be named in the first half of 2026.

Lucy Hawking, journalist and daughter of the MND Association’s late Patron, Prof. Stephen Hawking said:

“The Longitude Prize on ALS is an important step towards increasing our understanding of motor neurone disease, and specifically ALS. I hope the Longitude Prize will encourage the use of AI by researchers and scientists to gain new insights into this devastating condition and advance the search for treatments and a cure. For people living with the disease, their families, friends and carers worldwide, this would bring so much relief and joy. My father lived with MND for over 50 years, the longest known survivor with this condition and his great wish was that one day, a cure would be found. I’m proud to support the Longitude Prize and wish all entrants the very best.”

20 promising applications to be supported

Challenge Works will support the top 20 most promising applications who show high potential in both their proposed methodology and team make-up, which should bring together expertise from across multiple disciplines including ALS research and computational biology.

Beyond financial reward, successful applicants will gain access to the largest and most comprehensive collections of ALS patient data of its kind ever assembled, combining multiple types of biological information and brought together specifically for the Prize. This helps address a major challenge in ALS research, where data is often fragmented and difficult to access due to differing formats and restrictions.

The Longitude Prize on ALS offers participants access to data at an unprecedented scale. The dataset will be made available via DNANexus, hosted on Amazon Web Services, provided in partnership with Project MinE, Answer ALS, New York Genome Center (NYGC), ALS Compute and the ALS Therapy Development Institute.

Second and third stages will also support multiple teams

After the initial £100,000 ‘Discovery Awards’ have been awarded in 2026, ten teams will progress to a second stage, receiving a further £200,000 in 2027 to build the evidence base for their proposed therapeutic targets in silico and in the lab. In 2028, five teams will then receive £500,000 to undertake validation of the highest potential identified targets in the wet lab. The winning team will be announced in early 2031 and will be awarded £1 million for identifying the target with the strongest evidence of therapeutic potential.