ALS Gene Mutation Shot: A New Lease on Life

0:00It's April 4, Dallas News. Today starts now, AI-powered and ready. Jeff Fierschra, a 41-year-old scientist and extreme skier, carries a heavy family curse from ALS, the neurodegenerative disease also called Lue. Gareg's disease. His mom died when he was just two. All her siblings went in their late 30s or early 40s, and he and his two sisters tested positive for A. Rare FUS gene mutation that ramps up ALS risk, big time, his sisters, Erin and Lue, started showing symptoms and joined a cutting-edge trial at Columbia University's ALS Center, getting an experimental. Treatments and knock out the bad gene. Sadly, they both face complications and passed away, but just as it bought them extra time. What really spooks this adrenaline junkie, who shreds icebergs and chili and skydives over British Columbia, is that cloud of family history hanging over. Him. Dr. Spotted early muscle signal glitches in his test, so he jumped on the same preventive

1:01shot. For the past three years, he's been getting spinal infusions every few months to silence them mutated gene. After one year, those early warning signs vanished, and so far, no full-blown ALS. He's outliving relatives who got hit hard. Doctors like the Lue neurologist see this as groundbreaking hope, turning a death sentence into something livable. Meanwhile, Jeff keeps crushing his research job, hitting the slopes and globe trotting, feeling like he grabbed a fresh shot at life.