Sean F. Scott
Encyclopedia
Sean Forrester Scott was a self-educated American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 disease activist and researcher, filmmaker, innovator, entrepreneurhttp://www.redherring.com/Home/pages/print/posts/?bid=a9efaf61-660f-4c4e-b5cf-0eaa06ab5bf6&mode=Full and until the time of his deathhttp://www.alzforum.org/new/detail.asp?id=2041, the President of the ALS Therapy Development Institute
ALS Therapy Development Institute
The ALS Therapy Development Institute is a non-profit biotechnology company seeking effective treatments for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis . It is a registered 501 non-profit organization in the United States...

, the world's largest amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS
Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis
Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis , also referred to as Lou Gehrig's disease, is a form of motor neuron disease caused by the degeneration of upper and lower neurons, located in the ventral horn of the spinal cord and the cortical neurons that provide their efferent input...

/Lou Gehrig’s disease) research center. Scott himself was diagnosed with ALS in 2008 at the age of 38.

Scott became active with ALSTDI when his mother Vanna was diagnosed with ALS in 2001. Four more of Vanna's seven siblings succumbed to the familial form of the disease by 2007http://brandautopsy.typepad.com/brandautopsy/2007/11/the-business-ca.html, and Sean Scott eventually was diagnosed with the disease himself, which resulted in his deathhttp://www.alzforum.org/new/detail.asp?id=2041 in 2009. Beginning as a volunteer, Scott assumed the management and direction of the research and development program. He quickly became a leader, teaching himself neurobiology and reading the anthology of publications on potential therapeutics. Under his leadership, the research organization pioneered new pharmacological, surgical, study design and statistical techniques for study of the G93A-SOD1 mouse model of the disease.

In 2008, Scott was lead author of a landmark publication in The Journal Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosishttp://www.informaworld.com/smpp/content~db=all?content=10.1080/17482960701856300 that described guidelines for experimental design of studies evaluating therapeutics in the mouse model. The work identified crucial errors present in many existing preclinical ALS studies. Scott’s effort to establish standard model guidelines for preclinical development in ALS was featured in Nature in http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v454/n7205/full/454682a.html August 2008. Scott also developed an information management system used by researchers allowing for greater collaboration between research groups and the streamlining of experiments and processes. He focused on building the system and infrastructure needed to execute the largest ALS assault possible. With a system in place and working, Scott focused on ensuring scientists in the lab had the resources required to act on the best ideas quickly, and sought out the funding needed to speed up the process.

In 2006, Scott’s effort to fund the ongoing research led him to Augie Nieto
Augie Nieto
Augie Nieto is the founder and retired chief executive of Life Fitness. In March 2005, Augie was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, more commonly known as Lou Gehrig's disease. He is noted for fighting against ALS by creating "Augie's Quest", which he started by teaming with the...

 and Sharon Hesterlee. The ambitious $36 million partnership brokered between ALSTDI, Augie’s Quest and the Muscular Dystrophy Association
Muscular Dystrophy Association
The Muscular Dystrophy Association is an American organization which combats muscular dystrophy and diseases of the nervous system and muscular system in general by funding research, providing medical and community services, and educating health professionals and the general public...

http://www.boston.com/yourlife/health/blog/2007/01/we_wondered_who_1.html, a partnership that survives Scott, allowed for major expansion of the institute’s efforts to include the identification of genes that behave unusually in ALS and to determine how those differences affect the diseasehttp://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/summary/315/5811/449c.

An unconventional and visionary leader in the ALS research field, Scott was married in 2008 to Nancy Kelly his longtime companion, who also devoted herself to ALS activism. Scott lived in San Francisco, California
San Francisco, California
San Francisco , officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the financial, cultural, and transportation center of the San Francisco Bay Area, a region of 7.15 million people which includes San Jose and Oakland...

 with his wife until his death, and is also survived by his father Richard Scott and uncle, Edward W. Scott
Edward W. Scott
Edward W. "Ed" Scott, Jr. is an American businessman, philanthropist, and former senior United States government official. Along with Bill Coleman and Alfred Chuang, he founded enterprise software company BEA Systems....

.

Scott earned an undergraduate degree in rhetoric from the University of California, Berkeley
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...

.

External links

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