Battle against fatal neurodegenerative disease advances on two fronts

In 2005, an American triathlete named Jon Blais was diagnosed with an incurable neurodegenerative disease known as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS. He was 33 years old. Given no more than five years to live, Blais set about ticking off his final bucket-list challenge: the annual “Ironman World Championship” in the US state