More than 850 scientists, doctors, academics and professionals from all over the world in the field of ALS have been meeting since yesterday in Barcelona at the International Scientific Congress on Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis. The conclave aims to promote collaboration and exchange, and explore the latest advances in research and possible treatments in “an optimistic moment of the disease”, according to the local head of the congress, Mónica Povedano, a doctor from Bellvitge and a reference in ALS in Europe. .
“It is an optimistic moment because there are many clinical trials and new therapeutic targets are being described when we have spent many years having only one treatment. Now we are in a moment of great movement in research, and even if some trials fail, they will always help us”, points out Povedano. Finding a cure for the neurodegenerative process of ALS is not on the horizon, but treatments to slow the disease will become more and more abundant, he says.
In this sense, the new role of biomarkers in the study of the disease is one of the star topics of the congress, which is being held for the first time in Spain. “They are a factor that helps us diagnose, confirm it and establish the prognosis, and we will see how they can predict the result of a drug treatment”, explains the researcher. In her opinion, this congress should increase the visibility and positioning of Catalan research groups in Europe and should consolidate the existing network of researchers. “Sometimes we work too segmented,” laments Povedano.
Juan Carlos Unzué, former Barcelona goalkeeper, patron and affected by ALS, attended the opening ceremony of the congress, which was attended by institutional representatives such as the Minister of Health, Manel Balcells, and entities that have supported research on ALS in Spain in recent years.
Among the topics that will be addressed in this 21st edition, with a record number of attendees, are the regulatory differences in the approval of drugs in the US, Europe and Canada. The presence of participants from South American and African countries seeks to structure their incorporation into research platforms so that their studies in populations different from those of developed countries can help to understand ALS, taking into account the relevance of ancestry and burden genetics in the risk of developing a neurodegenerative disease.
