Student-founded · Funding ALS research
We are high school students in Indiana and Arizona raising money for ALS research and patient care. Every donation goes to the ALS Therapy Development Institute.
By Jessica Todd · September 14, 2026
“ALS receives significantly less funding simply because it’s a rare disease.”
Read the full article ↗“We want to keep raising awareness for the disease because a lot of people have heard about ALS, but it’s still not something people think about a lot.”
Where we stand
Grant & sponsor leads →$25,399
raised for ALS research
The total includes research grants and funding for patient care, not just individual donations.
Partners
Interview
Alan Premasiri runs clinical research operations at the ALS Therapy Development Institute. We asked him what has changed in the field since 2013, what the public gets wrong about ALS, and what the community needs from people outside the lab.
Eight questions, 27:49.
Regeneron ISEF 2025
Our PT150 project won first place in Computational Biology and Bioinformatics at the 2025 Regeneron International Science and Engineering Fair. The video is from the awards ceremony.
Presenting at AJAS in Phoenix.
Samarth presented the project at the American Junior Academy of Science in February 2026.
Read the research →Fundraiser recap
Twenty-four players at Gilbert Regional Park raised $120 for ALS research.
New · White paper, August 2026
In the United States, people with ALS wait ten to sixteen months between their first symptom and a diagnosis. Median survival is two to five years. Our white paper looks at why the wait is so long and what local groups can do to shorten it.
From the founders
We started ALS Forward to keep working on ALS after the science fair.
We’re Aryav and Samarth, high school seniors in Indiana and Arizona. Our research on PT150 won first place in Computational Biology and Bioinformatics at Regeneron ISEF 2025.
We are still doing research, and we raise money for the ALS Therapy Development Institute, which uses it for lab work on ALS treatments and for patient care.
Where your gift goes
Donations go directly to ALS TDI, which processes the payment and sends your receipt.
The research
Our PT150 study is on bioRxiv. Our second paper, on a 3-gene panel for ALS dementia risk, was a Conference Spotlight at the IEEE-EMBS Conference on Biomedical & Health Informatics.
Milestones
The full timeline →