From Project ALS, Valerie Estess and Erin Fleming host From Lab to Life, a podcast where ALS research leaves the laboratory and connects with real lives. In this episode, we meet Melissa Diaz Viera, a social worker, wife, and young mother living with ALS; and Drs. Steven Altschuler and Lani Wu, two mathematicians turned researchers whose work at UCSF is helping uncover new ALS subtypes.

Together, they explore why ALS is so heterogeneous, why no two cases are alike, and how finding "islands" within this complex disease could lead to more precise diagnosis and treatment. This conversation highlights how bridging patients and researchers can push ALS science forward and bring real hope to people living with the disease.