CARLSBAD, Calif.–Life Technologies Corporation (NASDAQ: LIFE – News), a provider of innovative life science solutions, announced it will use human embryonic stem cells to develop new models of Lou Gehrig’s Disease and other neurodegenerative diseases with a grant it received this week from the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM), a state agency tasked with providing funding for stem cell research at California universities, private companies and research institutions.

“We are honored to have been chosen as a recipient of this grant. Selection by this esteemed committee illustrates the caliber of our research and development capabilities,” said Joydeep Goswami, Vice President, Primary and Stem Cell Systems at Life Technologies. “This will increase Life Technologies’ ability to provide our customers with better models for studying neurodegenerative diseases, which should eventually enable advances toward the development of improved treatment options.”

According to the ALS Association, nearly 5,600 people in the U.S. are diagnosed with ALS each year. Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), also known as “Lou Gehrig’s Disease,” is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that attacks motor neurons in the brain and the spinal cord, which control muscles throughout the body. Proper muscle function is lost when these nerves die, leading to paralysis in later stages of the disease.

Life Technologies (formerly Invitrogen) was awarded a two-year grant of nearly $870,000. The company will focus on human embryonic stem cells to create the disease models and will develop accompanying protocols and reagents used for genetically engineering stem cells. The mutations and causes of ALS are understood with validated animal models used for research. However they cannot always accurately target the mutated gene to be interrogated and human diseases frequently cannot be fully replicated in animal models. These human models of disease could also be used to screen drug compounds and allow for a more relevant drug analysis.

“We have developed a high level of expertise and innovation in creating new tools to engineer human stem cells more efficiently,” said Ying Liu, M.D., Ph.D., Research Scientist, the principal investigator leading this project at Life Technologies. “Our team has developed the core competencies to perform this type of genetic engineering on human embryonic stem cells. The planned research is synergistic with the group’s ongoing projects and provides added momentum to the research Life Technologies is advancing in the stem cell space.”

According to CIRM, the Tools and Technologies Awards support work that either creates new reagents and methods for stem cell research, or that scales up existing technologies. The grants are designed to accelerate the development of critical therapies for patients with chronic disease or injury.