Avital Rodal, PhD Associate Professor of Biology

However, we had only begun to directly test how these processes might go wrong in disease and did not have the resources or connections in the ALS field to really dive in and test our ideas. [...] I had just received the NIH New Innovator award to further our studies of these fundamental transport processes, and your additional support gave us just the right boost to push our research in the direction of ALS. [...] We decided together that hiring the Blazeman Postdoctoral Fellow, to be jointly mentored by the two of us, would give this position the best of both worlds – the power, speed, and simplicity of the fruit fly system and the disease relevance of the mammalian system. [...] Most importantly, through our conversations and our connection to the Blazeman Foundation, we all have internalized the terrible toll this disease takes on patients, families, and friends, and the urgency and importance of the fight to cure ALS. [...] So, thank you deeply for all the work you have done to support our research and the development of the trainees in our lab, and for always reaching out personally to maintain our connection to your family and foundation.