The Comprehensive Analysis Platform To Understand, Remedy and Eliminate Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (CAPTURE ALS) is an innovative initiative that will pool resources and talent in Canada to advance our understanding of the biological basis of ALS and address its heterogeneity.

ALS drug discovery has been hampered by its complexity, clinical heterogeneity and rare disease status. Key advances will only be possible through multisite, multidisciplinary collaborations and the sharing of large amounts of data. CAPTURE ALS will leverage and expand the existing clinical network and infrastructure developed by the Canadian ALS NeuroImaging Consortium (CALSNIC) to provide the most comprehensive picture of a person living with ALS. Led by a group of basic and clinician scientists, it will be driven academically through four existing ALS centres of excellence in Edmonton, Toronto, Montreal, and Quebec.

CAPTURE ALS will provide the infrastructure and tools to enable the collection, storage, analysis and dissemination of standardized, longitudinal, multi-dimensional data and biosamples from ALS patients, related disorders, and healthy controls across Canada. Participants will be followed prospectively to longitudinally collect detailed clinical, neurocognitive, speech, electrophysiological and imaging data. Biospecimens, including serum, plasma, peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs), cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), and urine will be collected at the same intervals, with postmortem material collected when possible.