Manitoba researcher receives national award for breakthrough in ALS discovery
Posted November 19, 2025 3:49 pm.
When Nitesh Sanghai moved from India to Manitoba in 2019, he arrived with nothing but a promise he made after his father passed away the year before.
That promise was to honour his dad’s message: “Do something new.”
Now the Manitoba researcher may have uncovered one of the most promising ALS drug candidates in years – and it all happened in Winnipeg.
“I left everything to do something new and to do my best and then the journey started,” said Sanghai, a PhD candidate in the College of Pharmacy at the University of Manitoba.
Sanghai took his fathers words to heart and became the first in his family to pursue higher education.
“I realized in 2014 education was a privilege for me because my family was limited by education due to our financial background, so I thought of breaking the cycle,” he said.
He didn’t know what ALS was when he first moved to Winnipeg, but he quickly found out how devastating and under-treated the disease truly is.
“My supervisor in the car asked me one question: ‘Do you know about ALS?’” Sanghai recounted. “I said ‘no.’ He said, ‘you know Nitesh, we need to do something to create hope in the lives of ALS patients who are dying every day and there is no cure, so are you ready?’ I said, ‘yes.’”
That commitment turned into seven years of learning new lab techniques, building partnerships, and developing the skills needed for drug discovery.
Working with his supervisor, Dr. Geoffrey Tranmer, Sanghai helped create a Winnipeg-based research startup focused entirely on ALS.
Their breakthrough came when they redesigned an existing ALS drug using green chemistry. The result: a new molecule called Borsantrazole, which is showing major promise and could ultimately delay symptoms.
“Our molecule for the first time showed significant clinical benefits in mice models, in terms of extending the lifespan, delaying the onset, and preventing weight loss, which is one of the markers of neuro degeneration in mice and humans,” Sanghai explained.
The discovery earned Sanghai a Mitacs Award for outstanding innovation. He says the next steps are to secure funding to move Borsantrazole from the lab to ALS patents across Canada.
