In an Italy that is trying to restart, there are organisations such as AriSLA – the Italian Foundation for ALS Research – that have never stopped working to pursue its mission: to fund scientific research into Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, a neurodegenerative disease that affects around 6000 people in Italy alone and for which there is still no effective treatment. In recent months, it has launched a new call for proposals that will fund new projects, and a few days ago it promoted the first of two free Webinars, which saw the participation of more than 100 researchers working on ALS in our country with the aim of encouraging the birth of new collaborations and networking activities. Â
Our magazine ‘e-Borghi travel’,
in order to contribute to spreading a true ‘research culture’ as a value that embraces and involves everyone in the pursuit of ever new results, wanted to tell how the world of research is reacting to this particular moment and what the future scenarios are through the words of the President of Fondazione AriSLA, Mario Melazzini.
What is the current state of research in Italy?
The context marked by the Covid-19 pandemic has accentuated the fragility of people living with the disease, but at the same time has highlighted the importance of supporting scientific research to give them concrete answers on the therapeutic front. From our observatory, we can see that the Italian scientific community is very active and wants to get involved in order to win the challenge against ALS: this is demonstrated by the more than 100 proposals submitted to the AriSLA 2020 call for proposals, which closed on 11 June. Numerous important results have been achieved to date by our researchers, confirming the high quality of the research conducted in our country. A few days ago, one of the most important scientific journals, ‘Neurology’, published the following report, by a research group co-funded by AriSLA, which demonstrated that the application of advanced neuroimaging techniques, based on the use of magnetic resonance imaging, can be a very promising tool to identify reliable biomarkers for the early diagnosis and monitoring of the progression of motor neuron diseases, of which ALS is one. This result represents a new step towards adding another piece to the complex puzzle of ALS. Our goal is to try to add new pieces every day in order to get to an effective therapy as soon as possible and for this reason it is essential to ensure continuity in research.
In this battle against ALS, what role does the AriSLA Foundation play on the national scene?
Over the last 10 years, the mission of AriSLA, born thanks to the union between Fondazione Cariplo, Aisla, Fondazione Vialli e Mauro and Telethon, has been to concretely support the most valid and innovative studies, with a view to the potential applicability of treatments. In recent years we have invested over 12.4 million euros in research activities, funded 78 projects, 16 of which are ongoing, in different research areas (basic, preclinical and translational, clinical and technological), supporting 130 researchers who have led to 247 scientific publications (ref: WebOfScience, 2010-2019).
Our analyses indicate that the investment of the last 10 years has been fruitful. We have contributed to the support of working groups that over the years have been able to consolidate research of excellence with a high international impact, also attracting the interest of researchers from different fields towards targeted research on ALS. This has allowed the sharing of competences and the birth of strong synergies with the creation of different research lines, supported by multicentric projects whose funding has been renewed over the years. These synergies have also extended to important international collaborations and genetic research consortia, as demonstrated by publications.
Research is therefore moving forward, as demonstrated by the new AriSLA 2020 call for proposals that will fund new projects. What can be done in your opinion to speed up the achievement of results in our country?
ALS research must go on until ALS is defeated – that is our priority. We are committed to continuing to support researchers who work with us to overcome this challenge. With the latest AriSLA call, of which we will announce the selected projects later this year, we intend to fund observational, basic and pre-clinical clinical research, in order to increase knowledge about the disease and to develop methodologies for the development of new therapies, with the aim of ensuring better care for patients. Another important point will be to raise public awareness of the importance of supporting research in all possible ways. In recent years, awareness of this aspect has grown and this is a strong stimulus to work for the creation of a true ‘culture of research’, putting into common heritage the knowledge and discoveries that individual researchers gain through their generous and scientific work. AriSLA intensely believes in teamwork, in a sharing strategy, which embraces and involves also individuals with ALS, since their contribution is also necessary and fundamental to obtain results together.
There are several ways to support AriSLA and scientific research on ALS. One of these is the donation of the 5X1000 share to the Foundation: it is sufficient to sign the income tax return in the box reserved for “Financing of scientific research and the University” or “Financing of health research” and enter the tax code of Fondazione Italiana di Ricerca per la SLA 97511040152. The donations collected with the 5X1000 will contribute to support the researchers who will be winners of the AriSLA 2020 Call for Proposals.
On the site www.arisla.org are available all the information related to AriSLA’s activities and learn about other ways to make a free donation to support research projects.
