Advancement of scientific knowledge on ALS, in order to optimize the transfer of research results to the patients and introduce new therapeutic solutions is the goal of the six projects deemed worthy of funding by the International Scientific Committee of AriSLA - Italian Foundation for Research on ALS, who participated at the ninth "Call for Research Projects", launched in recent months to concretely support scientific research of excellence in Italy.

The Foundation investment for these new projects will be of 876.378 euro: since 2009 AriSLA invested in scientific research more than 10.6 million euro, supporting 62 projects and 260 researchers throughout the national territory.

As for any other Call of the Foundation, projects of the Call have been selected following a careful evaluation process in peer-review: this method has been accredited with the international scientific community and the proposals selection is based on principles of transparency, scientific merit and impartiality.

The 2016 'Call for Research Projects' has been conceived to specifically fund the following areas:

• Basic research
• Translational research
• Interventional clinical trial

Another novelty of this latest Call for Projects has been the activation of an online platform, implemented to facilitate researchers in the applications submission. The platform seems to have been appreciated since the significant increase of the proposals submitted, which have reached the quota of 157, for a total economic request of 20,865,939.20 euro and 249 research groups involved.

The Call was a funding opportunity for all researchers working in Italian public and private no-profit research centers.

The table below shows the distribution of the proposals submitted in the different funding areas.

 

HERE ARE THE 6 NEW WINNER PROJECTS of the 2016 CALL

 

1.     DDRNA&ALS - A Role for DNA damage response RNA (DDRNA) in neurodegeneration in ALS                 

        Fabrizio d'Adda di Fagagna,

        IFOM - The FIRC Institute of Molecular Oncology, Milano

 

2.     EXOALS - Exosomes from mesenchymal stem cells as innovative therapeutic approach for ALS 

        Raffaella Mariotti,

        Università degli Studi di Verona

 

3.     SUMALS - Role of SUMOylation in TDP-43 nucleocytoplasmic transport and aggregation

        Antonia Ratti,

        IRCCS Istituto Auxologico Italiano, Milano.

 

4.      SNop - Optogenetic modulation of the adrenergic component of motor nerves to understand the mechanisms of muscle atrophy and neurodegeneration in ALS

         Tania Zaglia,

         Venetian Institute of Molecular Medicine, Padova

 

5.       GPR17ALS - New strategies to enhance the trophic functions and remyelinating abilities of adult NG2-glia in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis via the GPR17 receptor      

         Marta Fumagalli,

         Dipartimento di Scienze Farmacologiche e Biomolecolari, Università degli Studi di Milano

 

6.       StressFUS - Impairment of the stress response by mutant FUS in iPSC-derived human ALS motoneurons

          Alessandro Rosa,

         Dipartimento di Biologia e Biotecnologie Charles Darwin, Università "La Sapienza" di Roma

 

 

For further details on the funded projects and to download the projects technical/scientific sheets please visit the following link http://www.arisla.org/?p=5262&lang=en