Lou Gehrig's Disease

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ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig's disease or Charcot disease, is a fatal progressive neurodegenerative disorder of the human motor system. Patients suffer from deterioration in muscle functioning, and typically die within 3 to 5 year from disease onset~\cite{talbot2009motor}. The genetic mechanism of ALS remains mysterious, and effective therapies have not yet been discovered~\cite{kiernan2011amyotrophic}.

One fact currently puzzling ALS researchers and clinicians is the diverse survival times ranging from less than a year to over 10 years. Such a wide range makes it difficult to predict disease progression and survival, and suggests rather large underlying disease heterogeneity. There may exist different subgroups of patients (i.e., \pc), each