Vanderbilt ALS center launches license plate campaign to fund research

Driving the news: Led by Veronique Belzil, VARC aims to raise $5 million over the next three to five years to finance its research.

• The license plate campaign is one strategy to contribute to that cause.

State of play: The campaign needs at least 1,000 pre-orders by June 30, 2026 in order for the state to put the new license plate into production.

• Art students at Vanderbilt and Belmont are working up designs for the new plate. The plan is to unveil the actual design next month.

Flashback: Vanderbilt partnered with the nonprofit LiveLikeLou Foundation on an ambitious fundraising campaign in order to open its new center.

• The campaign was boosted by state funds, which were initially proposed by Gov. Bill Lee and approved by the state legislature in 2022. Nashville's Evan Campa, diagnosed with ALS in 2018, advocated for the center.

Zoom in: Researchers at VARC are at the forefront of investigating ALS, but they need more funding to expand their work.

• For instance, VARC scientists use cutting-edge techniques to convert skin cells into neurons, which allows them to better understand the biology of the neurodegenerative disease.
• The big money in such medical research comes from the federal government, but centers still need to diversify their portfolios.

What he's saying: State House Speaker Cameron Sexton, who toured the VARC lab earlier this month, tells Axios the lab's work is "amazing."

• "The partnership is working," Sexton says. "The return on investment would be huge if we could figure this out for the families and everyone involved."

The bottom line: Tennessee is financially positioned to invest, Sexton says, and the state is also a desirable place for researchers to move to.

• "I'm hopeful that maybe we can find some additional funding next year to really help speed up what they're doing based on the results that we've seen in the short time they've been doing it," he says.

Go deeper to learn more about the campaign and pre-order the new specialty plate.