An international team of investigators has discovered that an inorganic polyphosphate released by nerve cells known as astrocytes in people with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and frontotemporal dementia (FTD) contributes to the motor neuron death that is the signature of these diseases. The research, by Brigitte van Zundert, Ph.D., adjunct professor of neurology at UMass Chan and professor at the Universidad Andres Bello in Chile; Robert H. Brown Jr., DPhil, MD, professor of neurology, and colleagues appears this week in Neuron.