July 14 - 16, 2026

Angel Over Boston ALS Therapy Workshop

The Angel Fund for ALS Research Announces "Angels Over Boston" International ALS Research Conference Boston, MA — July 2026 — The Angel Fund for ALS Research will host Angels Over Boston, an international ALS research conference taking place July 14–16, 2026, in Boston. The conference will bring together leading scientists and clinicians from around the world who are dedicated to advancing research that will lead to effective treatments—and ultimately a cure—for Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), more commonly known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease. The conference will focus on emerging therapeutic approaches to gene suppression therapy targeting mutations in the C9orf72 gene, the most common genetic cause of ALS. This important scientific gathering will foster collaboration and the exchange of groundbreaking research aimed at advancing promising therapies from the laboratory to patients.

ALS Therapy Workshop Researchers/Clinicians

Robert Brown, D.Phil., M.D. earned a D.Phil. in Neurophysiology (Oxford, 1973) and an M.D. (Harvard, 1975). After a neurology residency at the Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard Medical School (1980), he joined the faculty at the Massachusetts General Hospital and co-directed the Neuromuscular Clinic. In 2008, he became the chair of neurology at UMass Chan Medical School and served in that capacity through 2018, when he became the Director of Neurotherapeutics for UMass Chan Medical School. He currently holds the Donna and Robert J. Manning Chair of Neuroscience. With colleagues, Dr. Brown identified several ALS genes including SOD1 (1993) and FUS/TLS (2009). He also defined causative gene defects in hyperkalemic paralysis (skeletal muscle sodium channel, 1991), limb girdle dystrophy type 2B (dysferlin, 1998), and hereditary sensory neuropathy (serine palmitoyl-transferase, 2001). He and colleagues demonstrated that antisense oligonucleotides (1994) and siRNA (2004) can be employed to suppress the SOD1 gene in vitro. At UMass Chan, he and his team initiated two proof-of-concept human trials of gene suppression therapy in familial ALS, targeting SOD1 (AAVrh10-microRNA, 2020) and C9orf72 (anti-sense oligonucleotides, 2022). He is a member of the National Academy of Medicine, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a past president of the American Neurological Association.
Dr. Daryl A. Bosco is a Professor and Associate Vice Chair of Research in the Department of Neurology at UMass Chan Medical School, Worcester, Massachusetts. Dr. Bosco’s scientific career began with a Ph.D. in bio-organic chemistry from Brandeis University in Massachusetts and a post-doctoral fellowship at the Scripps Research Institute in California, where she studied protein structure and misfolding in the context of neurodegeneration. Dr. Bosco was then an Instructor at Harvard Medical School in Massachusetts, where she worked in the lab of Professor Robert H. Brown, Jr., MD, DPhil on sporadic amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). In 2008, Dr. Bosco established her independent research laboratory at UMass Chan Medical School. The Bosco laboratory is investigating the mechanisms underlying ALS and related disorders such as frontotemporal dementia. In particular, members of the Bosco laboratory are investigating how stress, traumatic brain injury and neuroinflammation contribute to these neurological disorders. In 2024, Dr. Bosco was honored with an Endowed Chair and named the inaugural Paul J. DiMare Chair in Neurodegenerative Disease. Dr. Daryl A. Bosco has served as Co-Chief Scientific Advisor to the Angel Fund for ALS Research with Dr. Brown since 2021.