LEWISTON — Brett Morrison’s love of science started in the 1980s, when he was a student at Edward Little High School in Auburn. It’s a passion that served him well through college, through medical school, through residency and fellowship and a faculty position at Johns Hopkins Medical School in Baltimore.

It’s a passion he’s brought to his research into amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also known as ALS or Lou Gehrig’s disease.

On Friday, Morrison returned to Lewiston-Auburn to share that passion with an audience at the Great Falls Forum. 

“It’s always great to come home,” he said.

About 50 people filled the Lewiston Public Library’s Callahan Hall to hear Morrison’s talk, “Beyond the Ice Bucket Challenge: The Latest Research on Lou Gehrig’s Disease (ALS).” A researcher and assistant professor of neurology at Johns Hopkins, Morrison has spent his career working on ALS.

During the hourlong presentation, Morrison talked about the progressive disease that causes a body’s upper and lower motor neurons to degenerate, leading to muscle weakness and atrophy, breathing problems and swallowing difficulty.

An estimated 30,000 Americans have ALS. Most will survive three to five years, with 10 to 20 percent living 10 to 15 years, Morrison said. Most patients have no close family history of ALS.

Although the average age of onset is 57, Morrison has seen patients as young as 22 and as old as 83.

ALS made headlines last summer when an informal Facebook challenge by two young ALS patients went viral. They asked friends to dump a bucket of ice water over their heads or donate $100 for ALS research. Soon, people were donating money for ALS research and dumping ice water over themselves — on video. 

“It spread virally, throughout the country, throughout the world. So you had people like Bill Gates (doing it), Kermit the Frog doing it. These are famous people right here,” Morrison said. 

The challenge raised $220 million over three to four months. Normally, ALS research would raise $5 million to $6 million in that time.

While some of that money went to patient support and new technology to aid disabilities, the bulk of it went to research. It was a lot of money and it was needed, but Morrison put it into perspective.

“The most recent phase 3 clinical trial on ALS … that one trial cost $100 million,” he said.

Morrison detailed the current research into ALS, outlining the thoughts on stem cell treatments and altering genetic pathways. He talked about his own research, which focuses on why ALS occurs in the first place.

“My feeling is all these clinical trials are great and maybe we’ll hit on something, but I think you’ve got to be lucky to hit on something,” he said. “And I think that, really, a better understanding of why this disease occurs and why it progresses will give us the best ideas on how to intervene and stop this disease in the long run.”

His hope: Better treatment for ALS. And ultimately, a cure.

Morrison, son of Chip Morrison, outgoing president of the Androscoggin County Chamber of Commerce, credited his family and early school years for giving him the foundation on which he built his career. He credited his teachers at Edward Little for helping him develop his writing skills — important in grant-writing — and for instilling in him a love of science, which led him to medical school and ALS research. 

 “Everybody’s a product of where they come from. Everybody’s a product of what they’ve lived through and their experiences,” he said. “I do think that all of these experiences have had me be the person that I am today. I’m very grateful for the community that has helped me along.”

ltice@sunjournal.com

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