"Hops For Hope" Donates Funding to Develop Another Promising Treatment for ALS / FTD
Neuroscientist Dr. Nikole Zuniga Quiroz from Mabylon AG in Switzerland is leading a research effort to develop a new gene therapy that is designed to help treat diseases like ALS and FTD. Her research is sponsored by The ALS Association’s Barrett Drug Development Program, and Hops For Hope / Raising Hope For A Cure has contributed funding to this promising work.
Dr. Kuldip Dave – Senior VP of Research at The ALS Association – provides a video overview of Dr. Nikole Zuniga Quiroz’s medical research and development of a gene therapy that fights toxic “clumps” of a protein called TDP-43 that cause nerve cells to degenerate. He explains why this research is so important and encouraging for people that have ALS or FTD.
The mission of Raising Hope For A Cure and the “Hops For Hope Fundraiser” is to raise funds that we can donate to promising medical research efforts that hope to develop new and effective treatments for ALS and FTD. We have raised over $475,000, and we have donated these funds to The ALS Association (ALSA) and The Association for Fronto-temporal Degeneration (AFTD) for their flagship medical research programs.
In the past few years, we have learned about some very encouraging research that is focused on a specific protein that is found in nerve cells, called TDP-43. Researchers have found that in 97% of cases of ALS and over 50% of cases of FTD, this TDP-43 protein becomes “dysfunctional” – it mis-locates and aggregates into toxic “clumps” in the brain and spinal cord and leads to the death of specialized nerve cells known as motor neurons. Because this TDP-43 dysfunction appears to be a factor in both ALS and FTD, Raising Hope For A Cure has earmarked some of its research funding contributions to projects that are specifically focused on treating toxic aggregates of TDP-43.
At the end of 2025, Raising Hope For A Cure was given the opportunity to contribute funding to another promising research project that is focused on TDP-43. This research is sponsored by The ALS Association and is being led by Dr. Nikole Zuniga Quiroz, a neuroscientist at a company in Switzerland named Mabylon AG.
In tests with human subjects, Dr. Zuniga Quiroz and her team have discovered small antibodies (called intrabodies) that target toxic TDP-43 aggregates inside nerve cells, and they have developed a gene therapy using these intrabodies to reduce the toxic TDP-43 aggregates without interfering with normal TDP-43 proteins. Currently their research is testing the effectiveness and safety of their gene therapy approach, and determining the optimal dosages of the therapeutic antibodies that should be introduced into nerve cells. The hope is that this gene therapy will reduce, stop, or reverse the progression of TDP-43 dysfunction and the resulting nerve cell damage in cases of ALS or FTD.
Dr. Zuniga Quiroz’s research is one of the projects sponsored by the Barnett Drug Development Program at The ALS Association, which assists late-stage drug development prior to readiness for clinical trials. Dr. Kuldip Dave, SVP of Research at The ALS Association, states that “We are excited to support the transformation of these promising treatment approaches into therapeutic candidates that can quickly move forward into the clinic and hopefully provide a meaningful benefit to people living with ALS [and FTD].” Raising Hope For A Cure is extremely pleased to contribute funds to this promising work.
REMINDER: This year’s Hops For Hope Fundraiser will be hosted at Next Chapter Winery in New Prague, on Saturday, Sept. 12, 2026.
You can donate online at: www.raisinghopeforacure.org/donate