Data in postmortem tissues of ALS patients revealed changes in the morphology of astrocytes together with elevated GFAP and aldehyde dehydrogenase family 1, member L1 (ALDH1L1) (Philips and Robberecht, 2011), corroborating findings in animal models of ALS. The gene discussed is ALDH1L1; the disease is amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.