Maybe, Joel Shamaskin thought, he was working too many hours, not getting enough sleep. That wouldn’t have been unusual for the longtime primary care doctor at the University of Rochester Medical Center.

The change was subtle, happening over the course of a few months. Sometimes, as he rounded the patient’s exam table, his legs didn’t advance quite as quickly or smoothly as they normally did. He might catch the rubber sole of his shoe on the tile floor. It wasn’t like him.

Neurology tests in the spring of 2016 revealed that he had ALS. He was in shock about the diagnosis — but also determined that something good come from it. He’s now one of nearly 1,000 people living with ALS from around the United States participating in a massive project that may offer more hope than ever before of finding a cure.

“The main way I felt I was going to cope was to be as proactive as I could in looking for potential new treatments and research trials,” he says. “Knowing that this is going to help others is as much of a motivator as anything.”

Called Answer ALS, its mission is to build the most comprehensive collection of clinical, genetic, behavioral, molecular and biochemical data on people living with ALS. With the help of artificial intelligence and machine learning, researchers will be able to analyze the data to uncover new insights about the causes of ALS and develop possible therapeutic treatments.

Microsoft is investing $1 million in cloud-computing resources for the nonprofit, which will make the huge repository of valuable data openly available to researchers around the globe.

All of that data is critical, as now there is no cure. ALS, or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, is a progressive disease that attacks nerve cells that control muscles throughout the body. Over time – for many, anywhere from a few years to 10 years – the fatal disease robs people of their ability to walk, to use their arms and hands, to talk and ultimately, to breathe independently.