Announcing the 20 Discovery Award Winners of the Longitude Prize on ALS
We are thrilled to award £2 million to 20 of the world’s most promising multidisciplinary teams of innovators using AI to find new drug targets for ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis).
Following a global call for entries in June 2025, nearly 100 teams entered the prize. Today, 20 successful international teams from 12 countries have each secured a £100,000 Discovery Award to further their development.
Tris Dyson, Executive Director at Challenge Works who was diagnosed with ALS in 2023 said: “10 months on from launch, we are celebrating 20 highly collaborative and creative consortiums who have teamed up with a shared goal in mind - to find a treatment for ALS…Beating ALS requires the boldest and brightest innovators – and that’s what we have found.”
The Challenge: Outpacing ALS
ALS is a fatal, progressive neurodegenerative disease that damages the nerves in the brain and spinal cord, ultimately leading to severe muscle degeneration. It can affect adults of any age, and there is a 1 in 300 chance that a person will develop MND in their lifetime.
Currently, there are no long-term treatments and no cure. However, for the first time, advances in AI present a unique opportunity for innovators to outpace the disease by unlocking vast quantities of patient data generated over the last decade.
At the heart of the Longitude Prize on ALS are the people directly impacted by the disease. Dr. Yentli Soto Albrecht, a member of the University of Pennsylvania team who carries a genetic mutation giving her a 95% lifetime chance of developing ALS or frontotemporal dementia, shares why she is taking on this challenge:
“Having watched what this disease took from my father, I not only grieved his loss but also faced the reality of what lay ahead for me…I am committed to finding a treatment for ALS before the disease takes me too, a door the Longitude Prize on ALS has opened. There’s a real chance that, across these 20 teams, we discover the perfect drug target - and what an honour it is to play a part in this fight.”
Unprecedented Data Access
To achieve their goals, our 20 winning teams - which include over 70 organisations including tech giants, pharma leaders and top universities - have been granted access to the largest and most comprehensive ALS patient dataset of its kind.
This unprecedented dataset includes the genomic sequences of 9,000 ALS patients, along with epigenomics, transcriptomics, and proteomics data for over 2,000 cases.
Looking Forward
During this first round, the teams will use their diverse expertise and AI to identify the most promising drug targets.
In 2027: Ten teams will progress to the second stage, receiving a further £200,000 to build the evidence base for their targets in the lab.
In 2028: Five teams will receive £500,000 to undertake validation of the highest potential targets.
In Early 2031: The final winning team will be awarded £1 million for identifying and validating the target with the strongest evidence of therapeutic potential.