Focus Areas

Dr. Staff's Translational Neuromuscular Disease Research Lab is discovering what causes amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), motor neuron disease and peripheral neuropathy, to find new treatments and work toward a cure for people with neuromuscular diseases. Dr. Staff's research is focused in several areas:

• Biological mechanisms of peripheral neuropathy. Ongoing studies are uncovering the basic pathomechanisms of peripheral nerve toxicity from cancer treatments.
• Neuromuscular diseases biosample collection. The lab is exploring skin fibroblasts, iPSCs and other biosample collections from patient volunteers with neuromuscular diseases.
• Clinical trials. Clinical trials for people with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and other neuromuscular diseases are active at Mayo Clinic.