Columbia Physician/Scientist Receives MDA Award
for Lou Gehrig's Disease Research

TUCSON, Ariz., April 4, 2002 — Hiroshi Mitsumoto, director of the Eleanor and Lou Gehrig MDA/ALS Center at Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center in New York, has received a $324,000 gift from the Muscular Dystrophy Association to continue his work in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS, or Lou Gehrig's disease).

The restricted gift to Mitsumoto, professor of neurology at Columbia University, will be used to advance MDA's ALS research program at the Gehrig center.

The funds were part of the proceeds from the Nov. 8 Wings of Hope dinner held at Tavern on the Green restaurant to raise funds for MDA's ALS Division programs. The event was led by Michael Beier of New York, director of Equity Trading for Credit Suisse First Boston, and Toni Diamond of Southwick, Mass., both of whom have ALS.

Beier and Mitsumoto are both MDA vice presidents.

Eleanor Gehrig served as MDA's national campaign chairman during the 1950s and 1960s, helping to recruit celebrity volunteers and secure publicity from radio and television program sponsors.

ALS, one of more than 40 neuromuscular disorders in MDA's program, destroys motor neurons (nerve cells controlling muscles) in healthy adults and leads to complete paralysis. Survival is typically two to five years after diagnosis. In more than 90 percent of cases, the cause isn't understood. No cure exists.

MDA is working to defeat neuromuscular diseases through programs of worldwide research, comprehensive services, and far-reaching professional and public health education. MDA maintains six clinics in metropolitan New York, as well as ALS Centers at Columbia Presbyterian and Mt. Sinai Hospital and Medical Center.

MDA is the largest non-governmental agency supporting ALS research and services. The MDA/ALS Center at Columbia offers diagnostic services and comprehensive follow-up rehabilitative care. Mitsumoto has directed the program since 1999.

MDA anticipates that Wings of Hope will be held annually. This year's event raised some $750,000. Mitsumoto was one of two beneficiaries. The other was MDA/ALS Center director and researcher Jeffrey Rothstein at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore.