Longitude Prize Offers £7.5 Million to Accelerate ALS Treatment Discovery With AI

Longitude Prize on ALS Spurs AI-Driven Search for New Treatments

The Longitude Prize on ALS is offering £7.5 million (over $10 million) to accelerate the discovery of new treatments for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) using artificial intelligence (AI). Scientists and research teams have until early December 2025 to enter this competition.

Over a five-year period, competing teams will progress through three stages focused on identifying and validating new molecular targets for ALS, the most common form of motor neurone disease (MND). Tanya Curry, CEO of the Motor Neurone Disease Association—which funds the prize—stated that the initiative aims to bring together top scientific and technological talent to drive meaningful progress for people living with MND.

Access to a Large ALS Patient Dataset

The competition structure offers staged funding to support research efforts. In early 2026, 20 teams will receive £100,000 (approximately $138,000) each to explore AI-generated molecular targets over nine months. Following this, 10 teams with promising results will get £200,000 ($275,000) in 2027 to refine up to 10 targets further during a 12-month phase. The final research phase in 2028 will fund 5 teams with £500,000 each ($688,000) for two years to conduct thorough validation of the most promising targets.

The grand prize of £1 million, awarded in 2031, will go to the team that shows outstanding progress in validating molecular targets with the highest potential to lead to effective ALS treatments.

Throughout the competition, participants will have access to an extensive ALS patient dataset hosted on Amazon Web Services through DNANexus. This resource compiles data from projects such as Project MinE, Answer ALS, and the New York Genome Center. Applications close on December 3, 2025, with initial winners announced in early 2026. The challenge welcomes teams from biotech, pharmaceutical, AI, and medical research sectors.

Tris Dyson, managing director of Challenge Works and an ALS patient diagnosed in 2023, emphasized the prize’s potential to accelerate treatment development by leveraging this unprecedented dataset. He highlighted the opportunity to identify the most promising drug targets using AI tools.

AI’s Role in Accelerating ALS Research

ALS progressively damages nerve cells controlling voluntary muscle movements, eventually impairing walking, speaking, swallowing, and breathing. Current treatments can slow progression but do not cure the disease.

AI can analyze complex patient data to detect patterns and biological pathways that might remain hidden with traditional methods. This approach helps identify molecules or genes likely to influence disease progression, enabling researchers to prioritize targets more efficiently and accurately.

Lucy Hawking, journalist and daughter of Stephen Hawking, a long-term ALS patient, expressed hope that the Longitude Prize will encourage innovative use of AI to advance treatment discovery. She supports the initiative as a step toward fulfilling her father’s wish for a cure.

Supporting Organizations

• Motor Neurone Disease Association
• Alan Davidson Foundation
• My Name’5 Doddie Foundation
• LifeArc
• FightMND
• The 10,000 Brains Project
• Answer ALS
• Robert Packard Center for ALS Research at Johns Hopkins University

For professionals interested in AI applications in medical research, exploring advanced AI courses could provide valuable skills to contribute to such initiatives.