Emory Researchers Identify Blood Protein Signature That Detects ALS With 98% Accuracy Using Alamar Technology
Key Highlights
- ➤10-protein signature achieved 98.3% balanced accuracy in independent ALS validation cohort
- ➤Signature outperformed NFL alone, achieving 98.3% versus 89.9% balanced accuracy
- ➤Emory researchers initially profiled 632 ALS patients and 160 healthy controls
- ➤Alamar’s NULISA technology measured more than 300 neurological and inflammatory proteins
- ➤Researchers emphasized the signature remains a research finding, not a validated diagnostic test
Expert Statements
Eleanor Varian Thomas, Assistant professor at Emory University School of Medicine
“We saw the proteins we expected, like neurofilament and phosphorylated tau, but we also found differences in proteins that hadn’t been linked to ALS in blood before.”
Eleanor Varian Thomas, Assistant professor at Emory University School of Medicine
“The combination of established and new biomarkers into a single protein signature, identified ALS far more accurately than neurofilament alone.”
Eleanor Varian Thomas, Assistant professor at Emory University School of Medicine
“Several of these new proteins may also tell us something about ALS biology itself, which we plan to explore as we test the protein signature in larger and more diverse patient groups.”
Yuling Luo, Founder, CEO and chair of Alamar Biosciences
“ALS patients and their families often wait far too long for answers”
Yuling Luo, Founder, CEO and chair of Alamar Biosciences
“We built NULISA to measure low-abundance proteins in blood that other technologies struggle to see, and to measure many of them at once.”
Yuling Luo, Founder, CEO and chair of Alamar Biosciences
“This study shows why that matters.”
Yuling Luo, Founder, CEO and chair of Alamar Biosciences
“By profiling brain-derived and inflammatory proteins together, the Emory team identified a multi-protein signature that outperformed single marker testing.”
Fremont, Calif., Oct. 28, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Alamar Biosciences, Inc. (Nasdaq: ALMR), a leader in precision proteomics dedicated to enabling the earliest detection of disease, today announced researchers at Emory University have identified a 10-protein blood signature that distinguished patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) from healthy controls with 98.3% balanced accuracy in an independent validation cohort. The study, published in Nature Communications, used Alamar Biosciences’ NULISA™ technology to measure more than 300 neurological and inflammatory proteins in each blood sample.
ALS can be difficult to diagnose, particularly early in the disease or when symptoms resemble those of other neurological conditions. Researchers are investigating whether blood-based biomarkers could eventually help clinicians identify patients who need specialist evaluation sooner. The newly reported signature remains a research finding, not a clinically validated screening or diagnostic test.
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