By: Abbie Ruesy
Sometimes the world feels vast and overwhelming. Other times, it feels remarkably small; full of connections that crisscross in ways you couldn’t possibly plan, and where chance encounters become lifelines. The HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology campus was intentionally designed to increase the crossing of paths, bringing scientists, clinicians, caregivers, and entrepreneurs together to have “collisions of brilliance.” For one member of the HudsonAlpha community, those connections stopped being abstract and started shaping his own life.
In the fall of 2024, David Chenault, CEO of Polaris Sensor Technologies, one of HudsonAlpha’s resident associate companies, and his wife, Dawn, received news that would change their lives: Dawn had been diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). It is a progressive neurodegenerative condition that affects nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord, altering muscle movement, speech, swallowing, and eventually breathing.
For many families, the diagnosis can feel isolating and overwhelming. But for Dawn, the community she was already a part of quietly began moving into place around her.
Dawn received her diagnosis at the Crestwood ALS Clinic, a Huntsville-based medical center equipped to help individuals and their care partners as they navigate life with ALS. Her care team included Sherry Kolodziejczak, MS OTR/L FAOTA, Director of the Crestwood ALS Clinic.
Sherry can easily be described as a powerhouse in the Southeast’s ALS community. Originally from Michigan, she moved to Alabama more than 30 years ago with 10 years of experience as an occupational therapist for individuals with complex diseases and neurotrauma. Once she arrived at Crestwood, she quickly grew in responsibility until she, in collaboration with Marcia Obermann, RN, was tasked with founding and running Crestwood’s ALS clinic.
Along with her work making the patient experience exceptional at the clinic, Sherry also coordinates research projects. One of the most recent is in partnership with HudsonAlpha through scientists in the Richard Myers Lab at HudsonAlpha. The project aims to identify biomarkers in blood samples that can be used to diagnose ALS, monitor disease progression during treatment, and aid in drug development. Traditionally, the condition can only be pinpointed by ruling out other neurological illnesses, so identifying a biomarker in blood can help people with ALS-like symptoms understand if they have the condition and begin treatment much faster.
“Without Sherry’s commitment to this project, we wouldn’t have received enough samples,” shared Benjamin Henderson, PhD, a senior scientist in the Myers lab. “The hardest part is collecting enough to effectively do research. This is a community project. We did the science, but we couldn’t have done it without Crestwood.”
Results from the collaborative study show a promising confirmation of a biomarker to diagnose and identify ALS progression while differentiating it from a related neurodegenerative condition, Parkinson’s Disease.
“It’s been a mission,” said Sherry when asked about her dedication to Crestwood’s ALS research projects. “I’m very passionate about community-based research, and to be able to have a partner like HudsonAlpha that believed in that and was willing to work with an occupational therapist at a small hospital that wasn’t this big research engine was amazing. It’s become a pilot in the ALS community to build something like this. This is possible. It lets patients like Dawn know they are part of something big here.”
As Dawn and David were sitting in the Clinic talking with Sherry about her research work, her mention of HudsonAlpha rang a bell for the couple. Not only were they familiar, but David realized he’d been working with his team in a suite of offices and labs just 500 feet north of where foundational research on the condition that now ailed his wife was taking place.
The small-world feeling didn’t stop at medicine and research. It also extended into advocacy. Shortly after Dawn’s diagnosis, Rich Edmondson, a family friend and David’s coworker, suggested they turn their grief into action. The team launched Pints for PALS (People Living with ALS). The inaugural event raised over $50,000 for the Alabama region of the National ALS Association. With one successful event under its belt, the group is planning on doing its second annual fundraiser in 2026.
“You don’t necessarily think of Huntsville as a medical town, but the community here is amazing,” David shared. “Dawn is receiving the care she needs, and HudsonAlpha is doing research to improve outcomes in the future. It’s all here. It’s all right here.”
The story of Dawn’s diagnosis is not only about hardship, but also about convergence. It’s about a research institution created to make life-changing discoveries and foster connection, a clinic built to bring care closer to patients, and a community ready to rally when one of their own needed it the most. It shows how the world gets small in the best ways, shrinking the space between scientist and patient, between professional networks and personal support, and between diagnosis and hope.
I’m very passionate about community-based research, and to be able to have a partner like HudsonAlpha that believed in that and was willing to work with an occupational therapist at a small hospital that wasn’t this big research engine was amazing.
