Two Hershey, Pa., researchers were part of a team that has uncovered what may be an important genetic risk factor for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). MDA grantee James Connor, professor of neurosurgery at Pennsylvania State College of Medicine, and Zachary Simmons, professor of neurology at Penn State and director of the MDA clinic at Hershey Medical Center, found that a defect in a gene on chromosome 6 known as Hfe is a likely risk factor for ALS. Connor, Simmons and colleagues published their results online Sept. 18 in the Journal of the Neurological Sciences.
