Tiziana Bonifacino, researcher at the University of Genoa, Department of Pharmacy - Section of Pharmacology and Toxicology, is a partner of the project GPR17ALS-1, one of the winning projects of the call 2019 AriSLA - Italian Research Foundation for Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, with a full grant of 200,000 euros (for a duration of 36 months).

The project is coordinated by Marta Fumagalli, researcher at the University of Milan, Department of Pharmacological and Biomolecular Sciences.

GPR17ALS-1 starts from the observation that motor neuron degeneration is closely associated with reduced energy support from oligodendrocytes, the cells that form the myelin guanine that surrounds neuronal prolongations. The study aims to evaluate the effect on disease progression of certain molecules capable of regulating the activity of a receptor expressed on cells that are precursors of oligodendrocytes.

On Saturday 23 November 2019, in Milan, the winning projects will receive a plaque at the AriSLA 2019 Convention. Among the speakers of the conference also Gianmario Sambuceti, Dean of the School of Medical and Pharmaceutical Sciences of the University of Genoa, who will present the results of a research on the evaluation of spinal cord metabolism in patients with ALS.