Dr. Merit Cudkowicz is the Chair of the Department of Neurology and Director of the Sean M. Healey & AMG Center for ALS at Massachusetts General Hospital and the Julieanne Dorn Professor of Neurology at Harvard Medical School in Boston. Dr. Cudkowicz is one of the founders and former co-directors of the Northeast ALS Consortium (NEALS), a group of over 150 clinical sites in the United States, Canada, Europe and the Middle East dedicated to performing collaborative academic-led clinical trials and research studies in ALS. She is leading the first Platform Trial initiative in ALS and is also the Principal Investigator of the Clinical Coordination Center for the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke’s Neurology Network of Excellence in Clinical Trials (NeuroNEXT). Dr. Cudkowicz also mentors neurologist in careers in experimental therapeutics.
Ernest Fraenkel is the Grover M. Hermann Professor in Health Sciences and Technology at MIT. His laboratory works at the cutting edge of computer science and biological engineering. They develop computational and experimental approaches to find new therapeutic strategies for diseases by generating and integrating molecular, clinical and behavioral data. Much of their work focuses on neurodegenerative diseases, especially ALS, including groundbreaking work using induced pluripotent stem cells from people living with ALS to map the molecular changes that distinguish different types of the disease. He has been an advisor to Everything ALS since it was founded and has helped to guide development of its research program.
Bill, a seasoned executive, is Chairman of EverythingALS and Emeritus Chairman of Fortune 500 company NCR. He has spent his entire career in the technology industry, working at companies including Cisco Systems and NCR. After serving as chairman and CEO for nearly 13 years at NCR, Bill retired from his position in 2018 following an ALS diagnosis. He is committed to the next chapter of his leadership with Vision 2030 AI Research, aiming to create a first-of-its-kind platform using cutting-edge technologies like AI and quantum computing to overcome barriers to discovering and efficiently administering ALS curative therapies.
Indu, a seasoned entrepreneur, CEO, and investor, founded the Peter Cohen Foundation, operating as EverythingALS.org, a nonprofit fostering collaboration among ALS patients, researchers, and providers. With 20 years of experience in software companies, she led successful exits and M&A activities. As a former Managing Director at Woodside Capital Partners, Indu advised software firms on financing and M&A. She previously was CEO and founder of Serus Corporation, acquired by E2OPEN, and contributed to WebMD and Silicon Graphics. Her career began at NASA. Indu holds a B.S. in Electrical Engineering, an M.S. in Computer Science, and pursues a Ph.D. in Neuroscience.
