Bedlack named to new national consortium to advance the treatment of Lou Gehrig’s disease

Neurologist Dr. Richard Bedlack, M.D., Ph.D., who leads the Duke ALS Clinic, has been appointed to a new national consortium to advance the care and treatment of ALS.

Bedlack has been named director of patient advocacy and outreach for the Clinical Research in ALS and Related Disorders for Therapeutic Development (CREATE) Consortium, funded by a $6.24 million grant from the National Institutes of Health.

The consortium will bring together a multi-disciplinary group of specialists including neurologists, neuroscientists with expertise in genetics and drug development, and patient advocates. Among their objectives, they will continue research on the genetic biomarkers of the disease as it progresses, and establish a repository of biological samples from ALS patient that could be used in current and future research.

In addition to overseeing one of the largest and most comprehensive ALS Clinics in the world, Bedlack is a tenured Associate Professor of Medicine/ Neurology at the Duke University School of Medicine and staff Neurologist at the Durham Veterans Affairs Medical Center. He has earned numerous honors for teaching and patient care, including the title of America’s Best Doctor, the American Academy of Neurology Patient Advocate of the Year and the Rasmussen ALS Patient Advocate of the Year.