Commissioner Geoghegan-Quinn was nominated by Italian Minister of Education and Research Stefania Giannini to take the Ice Bucket Challenge. The Commissioner has made a personal donation to the Irish Motor Neurone Disease Association (IMNDA). In her video she nominates her successor as Irish Commissioner, Phil Hogan, and the Commission Director General for Research Robert-Jan Smits. The Seventh Framework Programme for Research, Technological Development and Demonstration Activities (FP7, 2007-2013) has, since 2007 invested more than EUR 56 million in research on amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Projects aim at (i) better understanding biological processes of neurodegeneration underlying the disease and its progression through the development and study of various in vitro and in vivo models. These projects are also expected to provide insight as to new therapeutic targets that could be further developed; (ii) development, preclinical and clinical testing of various novel therapies. Among the supported research activities, the collaborative project EUROMOTOR (European multidisciplinary ALS network identification to cure motor neuron degeneration euromotorproject.eu/) is currently working on detecting key genetic drivers of disease susceptibility and progression for Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS). Eventually the project will deliver a model of the causal connections identified at molecular level and will pave the way for novel therapies for ALS. The consortium, led by Professor Leonard van den Berg (Utrecht University), is a unique multidisciplinary partnership of world-leading clinicians, basic scientists and bio-informaticians.
Posted on: Wed, 03 Sep 2014 12:39:15 +0000