Answer Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis
Answer ALS is a nonprofit research consortium that operates Neuromine, the world's largest open-access ALS data portal integrating multi-omics and clinical data from 2,500+ patients for academic and pharma researchers.
- Company typePrivate
- Founded2014
- HeadquartersNew Orleans, United States
- Headcount501–1,000
- GTM typeB2B
- OfferingServices
What Answer Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis does
Answer ALS (legally Answer ALS Foundation) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit research consortium headquartered in New Orleans, Louisiana, founded in 2014 following a 2013 ALS Summit convened by Steve Gleason and Team Gleason. The organization coordinates a global ALS research effort involving 8 major ALS clinics at Johns Hopkins, Massachusetts General Hospital, Cedars-Sinai, Washington University, Ohio State University, Emory, Northwestern, and Texas Neurology, alongside dozens of research institutions and over 1,100 enrolled participants. Its core product is the Neuromine Data Portal, a Microsoft Azure-hosted open-access platform that integrates multi-omics data (genomics, transcriptomics, epigenomics, proteomics, metabolomics) with clinical information across more than 2,500 ALS patient profiles and over 150 TB of harmonized data — described as the world's largest ALS research repository.
The technology stack combines patient-derived induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) line generation and motor neuron differentiation (in partnership with the Cedars-Sinai Biomanufacturing Center), robotic microscopy for live-cell analysis, the open-source Galaxy platform for bioinformatics pipelines, and machine learning applied to multi-omics for ALS subtype identification, biomarker discovery, and predictive modeling. Companion programs include the iPSC Repository (nearly 1,000 ALS patient lines distributed), Champion Insights (a remote-participation study of up to 500 elite athletes, military veterans, and first responders investigating elevated ALS risk), and LADDIA — an AI drug discovery initiative with GATC Health, Pennington Biomedical Research Center, and Tulane University.
As a nonprofit, Answer ALS does not generate traditional revenue; the platform is offered free to qualified researchers worldwide. Funding comes from corporate sponsors (American Airlines, Caterpillar, Microsoft in cloud compute, Stay Strong vs ALS, Augie's Quest), federal grant exposure (now constrained by congressional CDMRP/NIH cuts), and disease-focused grants (MDA, axeALS). The organization's customer base is composed of academic researchers and pharmaceutical/biotech drug developers who consume data and biosamples to inform ALS drug discovery, biomarker identification, and clinical trial design.
Answer Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- Answer Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis
- Legal name
- Answer ALS Foundation
- Website
- https://answerals.org
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 2014
- Operating status
- Operating
- Headcount range
- 501–1,000 employees
- Short description
- Answer ALS is a nonprofit research consortium that operates Neuromine, the world's largest open-access ALS data portal integrating multi-omics and clinical data from 2,500+ patients for academic and pharma researchers.
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
Answer Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis industry classification
Industry- Product category
- Biomedical Research Data Platform
- NAICS
- Web Search Portals and All Other Information Services (51929), Libraries and Archives (51921), Research and Development in Biotechnology (except Nanobiotechnology) (541714), Computing Infrastructure Providers, Data Processing, Web Hosting, and Related Services (5182)
- SIC
- Services-Medical Laboratories (8071), In Vitro & In Vivo Diagnostic Substances (2835), Services-Computer Integrated Systems Design (7373)
- akta.pro primary industry
- Disease-Specific Research & Support (e.g., Cancer, Diabetes, ALS) (BPAGACAA)
- akta.pro secondary industries
- Genomics & Next-Generation Sequencing (NGS) Services (HLAGANAA), Site & Investigator Platforms (Site Payments, Feasibility, Activation) (HLACAOAJ), Digital & AI-Enabled Diagnostics (algorithmic interpretation, decision support tied to assays) (HLAAALAO), Medical Imaging AI (HDAAAEAH)
Keywords
Where Answer Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- New Orleans
- HQ country
- United States
- HQ region
- North America
Markets served
Answer Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2B
- Offering type
- Services
- Cost components
- Personnel, Technology or R&D, Operations, Infrastructure, Others
Pricing tiers
| Model | Billing | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Freemium | — | Open-access data platform - free for qualified researchers |
Distribution channels1 record
Marketing channels3 records
Answer Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis product offering
Product offeringCore offering
Answer ALS operates the Neuromine Data Portal, the world's largest open-access ALS research repository providing harmonized multi-omics and clinical data from more than 2,500 ALS patient profiles, available at no cost to qualified researchers worldwide. The organization also operates the world's largest ALS patient-derived iPSC repository in partnership with Cedars-Sinai, and runs research initiatives including Champion Insights and LADDIA (AI drug discovery). All assets are openly shared to accelerate global ALS therapeutic development.
Product overview
Answer ALS operates as a research consortium rather than a traditional software product company, offering the Neuromine Data Portal as its core open-access platform for ALS research data. The platform integrates multi-omics data (genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, epigenomics, metabolomics) with clinical data from over 2,500 patient profiles. Supporting programs include Champion Insights (a remote-participation study of high-risk populations), the iPSC Repository (patient-derived stem cell lines with Cedars-Sinai), and LADDIA (AI-powered drug discovery initiative). All resources are openly shared with the global research community to accelerate ALS therapeutic development.
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Brands
- Neuromine: The Neuromine Data Portal is Answer ALS's cloud-based data platform that hosts the world's largest open-access ALS research repository, integrating multi-omics, clinical, and cellular datasets along with links to iPSC lines and biosamples.
- Champion Insights
Products and services
- Neuromine Data Portal Primary open-access cloud-based data platform hosting the world's largest ALS research repository with over 150 TB of multi-omics and clinical data from more than 2,500 patient profiles. Enables researchers worldwide to query, filter, and analyze genomic, transcriptomic, proteomic, epigenomic, and clinical data at no cost.
- Champion Insights Remote-participation research study investigating elevated ALS risk among high-performance athletes, military veterans, and first responders. Enrolls 500 participants contributing blood samples and clinical data from home to analyze genetic, biological, and environmental factors linked to higher ALS incidence.
- iPSC Repository World's largest ALS patient-based induced pluripotent stem cell repository created in partnership with Cedars-Sinai Biomanufacturing Center. Nearly 1,000 unique stem cell lines from ALS patients and over 100 healthy controls, differentiated into motor neurons for disease modeling and drug discovery.
- LADDIA (Louisiana AI Drug Development Infrastructure) AI-powered drug discovery collaboration with GATC Health, Pennington Biomedical Research Center, and Tulane University. Uses proprietary AI platform to identify druggable ALS targets with high predictive accuracy from multiomics data.
Quantifiable outcome
- Enables researchers worldwide to access standardized ALS patient data without the significant time and cost of data collection
Companies that use Answer Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis
Customer profileSegments2 records
Ideal customer profiles2 records
Answer Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed Yes
API detail
- Has API
- No
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
Integration2 records
AI capability6 records
Feature1 record
Answer Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis partnerships and signals
Strategic signalPartnerships
Five partnerships are on record, tiered core.
- MicrosoftcoreMicrosoft provided $1 million in cloud computing resources to support the Neuromine Data Portal infrastructure and data processing capabilities. Azure cloud platform enables scalable storage and analysis of ALS research data.
- ALS Therapy Development Institute (ALS TDI)coreCollaborative research partnership combining Answer ALS patient data with ALS TDI's therapeutic screening programs. Joint effort to accelerate drug discovery using patient-derived stem cells.
- Cedars-SinaicoreClinical and research partnership with Cedars-Sinai Medical Center for patient recruitment, stem cell line development, and genomic analysis.
- Johns Hopkins University (Robert Packard Center for ALS Research)coreResearch partnership with the Robert Packard Center for ALS Research at Johns Hopkins University for data analysis, methodology development, and scientific collaboration.
- Massachusetts General HospitalcoreClinical partnership with Massachusetts General Hospital for ALS patient enrollment, clinical data collection, and biomarker research.
Scale indicators2 records
Recent moves6 records
Expansion highlights6 records
Answer Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis competitors and assessment
Company assessmentDirect peers
- ALS Therapy Development Institute (ALS TDI): ALS TDI is the largest nonprofit biotech focused solely on ALS, running its own preclinical research and the ARC clinical study. Answer ALS already partners with ALS TDI on data sharing and Champion Insights, and its ARC dataset was integrated into Neuromine in November 2025 — making them direct peers in ALS translational research with overlapping consortium models.
- Target ALS: Target ALS is a public-private partnership that funds collaborative ALS research and maintains its own postmortem tissue and multi-omics biorepository. It serves the same academic and pharma researchers as Answer ALS and represents the closest alternative large-scale ALS research consortium with a shared data-sharing mission.
- Project MinE: Project MinE is an international ALS genomics consortium performing whole-genome sequencing on thousands of ALS patients across Europe, the US, and beyond. It is comparable as a large-scale, open-access ALS data generation project with a similar multi-country academic-clinic operational model.
- Robert Packard Center for ALS Research at Johns Hopkins: Packard is the academic research center that incubated much of the Answer ALS scientific agenda and shares leadership (Jeffrey Rothstein, now Jeffrey Keller). It is a core scientific partner of Answer ALS but operates as its own independent ALS research center with overlapping investigator base and portfolio.
Broad incumbents
- Muscular Dystrophy Association (MDA): MDA funds ALS research and care across a wider neuromuscular disease portfolio and is an active grant funder of Answer ALS (e.g., the $200K Champion Insights grant). It is comparable as a large nonprofit research funder with overlapping investigator networks and shared ALS program priorities.
- The ALS Association (ALSA): ALSA is the largest US ALS nonprofit, funding research, advocacy, and care services. While broader in scope than Answer ALS (which focuses on research infrastructure), ALSA's research grant program and Global Genes partnerships make it an incumbent in the same disease-specific funding ecosystem, sharing many institutional donors and investigators.
- NIH NeuroBioBank / NINDS Repository: The NIH NeuroBioBank and NINDS curate large postmortem and biofluid repositories for ALS and other neurodegenerative diseases. They serve a similar researcher base with comparable standardized multi-site tissue and data collection, positioning them as a federally-funded incumbent in the disease-specific biorepository space.
Others
- Team Gleason: Team Gleason is the founding patient-advocacy organization behind Answer ALS, providing people, technology, and advocacy infrastructure. Although Steve Gleason's 2013 ALS Summit catalyzed Answer ALS, the two organizations remain legally and operationally distinct, making Team Gleason an adjacent ecosystem partner rather than a direct competitor.
- Cedars-Sinai Biomanufacturing Center (iPSC Core): Cedars-Sinai houses the iPSC manufacturing capacity that produces the world's largest ALS patient iPSC repository jointly with Answer ALS. It is comparable as a critical operational partner enabling the biological resource arm of the platform, sharing scientific leadership on ALS stem-cell modeling.
Emerging players
- GATC Health: GATC Health is an AI-driven drug discovery company that partnered with Answer ALS to form LADDIA. While not a direct competitor, GATC applies AI to multi-omics data — the same core activity Answer ALS enables — making it a comparably positioned emerging player in computational ALS drug discovery.
Market position
Strengths5 records
Weaknesses5 records
Competitive moat5 records
Key risks6 records
Key highlights7 records
Customer concentration
Answer Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis social profiles
Digital presenceAnswer Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
Answer Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Profiles5 records
Answer Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds
Investors
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Answer Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis M&A and investment
M&A and investmentM&A
Investments
M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Frequently asked questions about Answer Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis
What does Answer Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis do?
Answer ALS operates the Neuromine Data Portal, the world's largest open-access ALS research repository providing harmonized multi-omics and clinical data from more than 2,500 ALS patient profiles, available at no cost to qualified researchers worldwide. The organization also operates the world's largest ALS patient-derived iPSC repository in partnership with Cedars-Sinai, and runs research initiatives including Champion Insights and LADDIA (AI drug discovery). All assets are openly shared to accelerate global ALS therapeutic development.
Is Answer Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis a public or private company?
Answer Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis is a private company. It is classified as nonprofit foundation owned and is currently operating.
When was Answer Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis founded?
Answer Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis was founded in 2014. It employs 501 to 1,000 people.
Where is Answer Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis based?
Answer Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis is headquartered in New Orleans, United States, in the North America region.
Who are Answer Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis's main competitors?
Direct peers on record are ALS Therapy Development Institute (ALS TDI), Target ALS, Project MinE and Robert Packard Center for ALS Research at Johns Hopkins. Broad incumbents are Muscular Dystrophy Association (MDA), The ALS Association (ALSA) and NIH NeuroBioBank / NINDS Repository. Others are Team Gleason and Cedars-Sinai Biomanufacturing Center (iPSC Core). GATC Health is listed as an emerging player.
Does Answer Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis have an API?
No public API is recorded for Answer Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis.
What industry is Answer Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis in?
Answer Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis's product category is Biomedical Research Data Platform. Its primary akta.pro industry code is BPAGACAA, Disease-Specific Research & Support (e.g., Cancer, Diabetes, ALS), with a secondary code of HLAGANAA, Genomics & Next-Generation Sequencing (NGS) Services. Its NAICS code is 51929 and its SIC code is 8071.