The University of Sheffield has been named a winner of the Longitude Prize on ALS, cementing its reputation as a world leader in the fight against Motor Neuron Disease

• The Longitude Prize on ALS Discovery Award recognises 'Decode ALS', an international consortium led by Sheffield scientists, to advance a pioneering end-to-end AI pipeline designed to bridge the gap between genetic discovery and life-saving treatments  

• By training AI models on whole-genome sequencing from patients and molecular readouts of the disease, the team can predict how candidate drugs will interact with specific protein structures. This approach will allow researchers to better understand the causes of ALS as well as identifying potential treatments to halt the progression of the disease

The renowned global prize recognised the Sheffield-led ‘Decode ALS’ consortium as one of the world’s most promising multidisciplinary teams of innovators using AI to find a new drug target for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) - the most common form of motor neuron disease (MND).

The Decode ALS team, led by Professor Johnathan Cooper-Knock and Professor Richard Mead from the Sheffield Institute for Translational Neuroscience (SITraN) in collaboration with researchers from Yale University, Weizmann Institute of Science and Columbia University, has been awarded a Longitude Prize on ALS £100,000 Discovery Award to advance a pioneering end-to-end AI pipeline to bridge the gap between genetic discovery and life-saving treatments.

While scientific research often operates in silos, Decode ALS is combining cutting-edge AI across genetics, genomics, disease biology, and drug discovery into a single, seamless system.

By training AI models on whole-genome sequencing from patients and molecular readouts of the disease, the team can predict how candidate drugs will interact with specific protein structures. This approach will allow researchers to better understand the causes of ALS and identify potential treatments to halt the progression of the disease.

Johnathan Cooper-Knock, Rob Burrow MND Association Professor of Translational Neurobiology at SITraN and co-lead of Decode ALS, said: “As a neurologist, I am consistently inspired by the positivity of my patients. I often see people who give up their time for research they know will not bear fruit in time to help them personally — they are selflessly investing in the search for a cure. We hope our work can finally honor that investment.

“Our unique team combines world-leaders in the application of AI and machine learning with experts in ALS biology to drive therapeutic discovery to completion.”

Decode ALS now has access to the largest and most comprehensive ALS patient dataset of its kind, combining multiple types of biological information which have not been available in one place previously – including the genomic sequences of 9,000 ALS patients and epigenomics, transcriptomics, and proteomics data for more than 2,000 cases.

Richard Mead, Professor of Translational Neuroscience at SITraN and co-lead of Decode ALS, said: "At SITraN, we aren't just looking to understand ALS; we are building the tools to stop it. By integrating AI directly into our drug discovery pipeline, we can now decode patient data at a scale and speed that was previously unimaginable. This award validates our approach of turning big data into tangible new medicines, ensuring Sheffield remains at the forefront of the global effort to end this disease."

The Longitude Prize on ALS is a £7.5 million global challenge prize that is incentivising and rewarding cutting edge AI-based approaches to transform drug discovery to treat ALS. Following a global call to action in June 2025, almost 100 teams representing the world’s leading universities, technology giants, advanced medical research organisations and AI pioneers entered the prize.

Today (7 May 2026), 20 of the most promising entrants, including Decode ALS, have received Discovery Awards of £100,000 each, based on their potential to use AI to identify and validate drug targets. Identifying drug targets will drive understanding of the disease and support future drug discovery. In 2027, 10 teams will progress to a second stage, receiving a further £200,000 to build the evidence base for their proposed therapeutic targets in silico and in the lab. In 2028, five teams will then receive £500,000 to undertake validation of the highest potential identified targets in the wet lab. The winning team will be announced in early 2031 and will be awarded one million pounds for identifying and validating the target with the strongest evidence of therapeutic potential. 

The Longitude Prize on ALS is principally funded by the MND Association and designed and delivered by Challenge Works, home of the Longitude Prize. Additional funders include Nesta, the Alan Davidson Foundation, My Name’5 Doddie Foundation, LifeArc, FightMND, The 10,000 Brains Project, Answer ALS and The Packard Center at Johns Hopkins.

Tris Dyson, Managing Director at Challenge Works who was diagnosed with ALS in 2023 said: “Ten months on from launch, we are celebrating 20 highly collaborative and creative consortiums who have teamed up with a shared goal in mind - to find a treatment for ALS. 

“I was confident the time was right to launch the Longitude Prize on ALS, given huge advances in AI. However, I didn’t quite realise just how impressive a line-up of researchers and innovators it would attract. Beating ALS requires the boldest and brightest innovators – and that’s what we have found.”

Dr Tanya Curry, Chief Executive, MND Association, said: “Our vision is a world free from MND and this can be achieved through funding leading researchers to chase down new treatments. These 20 teams of innovators and their work can provide more understanding of this condition and potentially, one day, a cure. MND is a devastating disease, but every step forward in research brings hope. We are delighted to support the work that lies ahead in our role as principal funder.”

Reflecting our commitment to independent thinking and a shared ambition, Decode ALS demonstrates how creative minds at Sheffield are shaping solutions to global challenges.

The race to ‘Decode ALS’: Sheffield scientists awarded global prize for breakthrough AI drug discovery | News | The University of Sheffield 

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