By using this site, you agree to the Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.
Accept
Health Works CollectiveHealth Works CollectiveHealth Works Collective
  • Health
    • Mental Health
    Health
    Healthcare organizations are operating on slimmer profit margins than ever. One report in August showed that they are even lower than the beginning of the…
    Show More
    Top News
    An Expert’s Guide To Building and Improving Endurance
    June 30, 2022
    medical assistants
    What Do Medical Assistants Do On a Day to Day Basis?
    April 5, 2022
    superfoods to help with prostate health
    10 Healthy Foods That Can Help Protect Your Prostate
    August 29, 2022
    Latest News
    Why Custom Telemedicine Apps Outperform Off‑the‑Shelf Solutions
    July 20, 2025
    How Probate Planning Shapes the Future of Your Estate and Family Care
    July 17, 2025
    Beyond Nutrition: Everyday Foods That Support Whole-Body Health
    June 15, 2025
    The Wide-Ranging Benefits of Magnesium Supplements
    June 11, 2025
  • Policy and Law
    • Global Healthcare
    • Medical Ethics
    Policy and Law
    Get the latest updates about Insurance policies and Laws in the Healthcare industry for different geographical locations.
    Show More
    Top News
    How Powerful Patients Save the System Money
    November 11, 2015
    How Financial Barriers are Slowing Down Telehealth Adoption
    September 26, 2017
    No Resource Constraints in Dialysis: a Blessing and a Curse
    May 4, 2011
    Latest News
    How IT and Marketing Teams Can Collaborate to Protect Patient Trust
    July 17, 2025
    How Health Choices and Legal Actions Intersect After an Injury
    July 17, 2025
    How communities and healthcare providers can address slip and fall injuries with legal awareness
    July 17, 2025
    Let Your Lawyer Handle the Work Before You Pay Medical Costs
    July 6, 2025
  • Medical Innovations
  • News
  • Wellness
  • Tech
Search
© 2023 HealthWorks Collective. All Rights Reserved.
Reading: Better Testing for ALS with This Health Startup
Share
Notification Show More
Font ResizerAa
Health Works CollectiveHealth Works Collective
Font ResizerAa
Search
Follow US
  • About
  • Contact
  • Privacy
© 2023 HealthWorks Collective. All Rights Reserved.
Health Works Collective > Technology > Medical Innovations > Better Testing for ALS with This Health Startup
BusinessMedical Innovations

Better Testing for ALS with This Health Startup

Deanna Pogorelc
Deanna Pogorelc
Share
4 Min Read
SHARE

ALS treatmentOriginally published on MedCityNews.com. It might not seem like a fitting name for a medical company – or at least one that you’d expect – but Iron Horse Diagnostics actually makes a lot of sense.

ALS treatmentOriginally published on MedCityNews.com. It might not seem like a fitting name for a medical company – or at least one that you’d expect – but Iron Horse Diagnostics actually makes a lot of sense.

The name comes from baseball great Lou Gehrig, nicknamed “The Iron Horse.” He died from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), one of the neurodegenerative diseases the startup thinks it can help diagnose earlier.

The one-man, Scottsdale, Arizona company is developing a series of protein-based biomarkers to function as diagnostic and prognostic tests for the disease, which affects nerve cells in the brain and the spinal cord. Because ALS has non-specific symptoms that could also be indicative of other diseases, it’s difficult to diagnose.

More Read

Does Your Hospital Have Social Media Guidelines for Employees in Place?
Should Hospitals Use SASE or Traditional Network Security?
Medicare Quiz from Kaiser: Almost Everyone Can Learn Something
Next Big Things in Medical Science Are Tiny
Trend Watch: Obamacare Challenging Community Hospitals

There’s also no cure for ALS, but Robert Bowser, professor and chairman of neurobiology at Barrow Neurological Institute, said the interventions available to help manage the disease tend to work better if they’re administered sooner. One FDA approved drug, riluzole (Sanofi-Aventis), for example, has been shown to slow progression of the disease in clinical studies. Typically, the disease is fatal within five years of diagnosis.

Bowser is also founder of Iron Horse Diagnostics, and he said that the company has just secured a pharmaceutical partner to validate its two ALS tests. “We’ve already performed studies in 23 centers in the U.S. where samples were collected and shipped to the lab,” he said. “The overall accuracy of the test was 93 percent.”

Next, he’s gearing up to run another 300-subject prospective study at six more sites. The lab-based tests look for levels of proteins called pNfH and complement c3, which Bowser and fellow researchers have identified as being important components of the disease. One test uses a patient’s cerebrospinal fluid, and the other uses a blood sample, he said.

Down the line, he hopes to develop additional prognostic assays that would be used to monitor ALS progression and gauge the effectiveness of new drugs in clinical trials. In the meantime, Iron Horse is also working on a blood biomarker that would allow earlier and more confident diagnosis of traumatic brain injury.

Before launching Iron Horse in 2012 with technology he developed as a faculty member at the University of Pittsburgh, Bowser co-founded a drug development company called Knopp Biosciences. That Pittsburgh-based company is developing drugs for ALS and in 2010 signed a licensing deal with Biogen Idec. Earlier this year, though, the drug failed to prolong life or slow loss of muscular function in people with the disease in a Phase 3 trial.

Supported so far by an SBIR grant from the National Institutes of health and some private funding, Iron Horse is seeking funding for clinical trials.

TAGGED:ALSLou Gehrig's disease
Share This Article
Facebook Copy Link Print
Share

Stay Connected

1.5kFollowersLike
4.5kFollowersFollow
2.8kFollowersPin
136kSubscribersSubscribe

Latest News

holistic dental
Holistic Dentist Services Are Natural and Safe
Dental health Specialties
July 28, 2025
botox certification
Help Improve People’s Skin Health Via Botox Certification
Skin Specialties
July 22, 2025
Telemedicine Apps
Why Custom Telemedicine Apps Outperform Off‑the‑Shelf Solutions
Health
July 20, 2025
Grounded Healing: A Natural Ally for Sustainable Healthcare Systems
How IT and Marketing Teams Can Collaborate to Protect Patient Trust
Global Healthcare Policy & Law
July 17, 2025

You Might also Like

Prostate Study Receives Media Attention

April 19, 2012
Medical InnovationsSpecialtiesTechnology

New Advances Improve Breast Cancer Diagnosis And Treatment

February 1, 2018
hospital supply chains
BusinessFinanceHospital AdministrationTechnology

To Up Patient Satisfaction, Hospital Supply Chain Units Need Better IT and Technology

August 20, 2014
Hospital AdministrationMedical Records

How Can Hospitals Make Patient Care and Medical Info Work Together?

March 17, 2017
Subscribe
Subscribe to our newsletter to get our newest articles instantly!
Follow US
© 2008-2025 HealthWorks Collective. All Rights Reserved.
  • About
  • Contact
  • Privacy
Welcome Back!

Sign in to your account

Username or Email Address
Password

Lost your password?