Laurie Russell Helps Scientists See a Bigger Picture

Laurie Russell shares a proud moment with her family.

Late in 1998, Laurie S. Russell noticed peculiar changes taking place in her body. Working out regularly in the gym, she sensed that the right side of her body was weaker than the left. Leg cramps followed, keeping her up at night. She tried to ignore the mysterious symptoms. But two years later, she felt her right foot get “sort of floppy.” While walking on the beach with her husband, Russell’s ankle caved in. By the time she visited Hopkins’ Neuromuscular Clinic, she could barely walk.

Packard Center Director Jeff Rothstein would tell Russell—who was then 54—these were classic symptoms of ALS. As she and her husband, Thomas (“Edgie”), listened, Rothstein pointed to the muscles twitching in her arm. Called “fasciculations,” they’re the hallmark of the deadly degenerative disease.

“What’s the prognosis?” Edgie asked.

“Statistics say two to five years,” Rothstein replied.

“But nothing is certain, Jeff,” Laurie broke in. “Someone here is going to find a cure. And I’m going to help them do it.”

Good on her word, Russell, a former nurse, got to work. She founded the Center’s development committee and, in an amazingly short time, helped raise more than $5 million to cover 29 grants for Packard Center investigators. Russell’s goal is to fast-track ALS research.

No stranger to philanthropy, for more than 25 years, she’s raised money for the arts, hospitals and other organizations, and was president of the Baltimore Opera Guild.

At a recent reception held in her honor at Johns Hopkins’ new Broadway Research Building, guests were invited to see the fruits of her labor—a novel confocal microscope Russell, her close friends and family purchased for the Center. The
ultrahigh-technology microscope will lift studies of ALS-damaged tissues to new levels of clarity, Center researchers say.

Despite being confined to a wheelchair and having difficulty speaking, Russell prepared brief remarks for the tribute. They were displayed on the laptop she uses to communicate. She thanked donors, Rothstein and the Packard board for their “dedication, enthusiasm and energy for raising funds to support the research that will one day find a cure for this devastating disease.” She called researchers the “unsung heroes in these efforts.” Then she flashed her high-wattage smile.

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