Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis clinical and research center

Principal Investigator: Prof. Adriano Chiò

Group members:

Adriano Chiò - Principal Investigator, Neurology
Andrea Calvo - Associate Professor, Neurology
Cristina Moglia - Assistant professor RTDB, Neurology
Antonio Canosa - Assistant professor RTDA, Neurology
Umberto Manera - Assistant Professor RTDA, Neurology
Francesca Palumbo - Neurologist, PhD Student in Neuroscience
Maurizio Grassano - Neurologist, PhD Student in Neuroscience
Alessandro Bombaci - Neurologist, PhD Student in Neuroscience
Rosario Vasta - Neurologist, Postdoc
Federico Casale - Biologist, Research Technician
Giuseppe Fuda - Biologist, Research Technician
Maura Brunetti - Biologist, Research Technician
Paolina Salamone - CTF Study coordinator, Research Technician
Giovanni De Marco - CTF Research Fellow
Giulia Marchese - Biologist, Study coordinator, Research Fellow
Enrico Matteoni - Neurology resident
Filippo De Mattei - Neurology resident
Sara Cabras - Neurology resident
Francesca Di Pede - Neurology resident
Margherita Daviddi - Neurology resident
Grazia Zocco - Neurology resident
Giorgio Pellegrino - Neurology resident
Emilio Minerva - Neurology resident
Andrea Novara - Neurology resident
Barbara Iazzolino - Psychologist, Postdoc
Chiara Lamannis - Psychologist, Research Fellow
Marcella Testa - Speech therapist, Research Fellow

Address and contacts:

Adriano Chiò, 011 670 9170, adriano.chio@unito.it
Andrea Calvo, 011 670 9171, andrea.calvo@unito.it
Cristina Moglia, 011 670 9171, cristina.moglia@unito.it
Federico Casale, 011 633 5430, federico-casale@unito.it

Main research activities of the research group
Research activities of the ALS center are aimed at identifying mechanisms and therapies of motor neuron diseases in adults. Several research areas are covered, including descriptive and analytical epidemiology, genetics (causative and modifier genes) and gene-environment correlations, epigenetics, disease phenotypes and their determinants, cognitive-behavioral disorders, neuroimaging (MRI) and functional brain imaging (PET), biological markers related to disease diagnosis and progression.
The ALS center is active in the field of pharmacological research for the treatment of ALS (in the last 10 years it has participated in over 20 international trials) and is accredited by IIS and AIFA for carrying out phase I trials (it currently is performing two phase I trials). It also carries out clinical research activities relating to symptomatic treatments and palliative and end-of-life interventions (the latter in collaboration with the regional network of palliative care).

List of 10 main publications

Miller TM, Cudkowicz ME, Genge A, Shaw PJ, Sobue G, Bucelli RC, Chiò A, Van Damme P, Ludolph AC, Glass JD, Andrews JA, Babu S, Benatar M, McDermott CJ, Cochrane T, Chary S, Chew S, Zhu H, Wu F, Nestorov I, Graham D, Sun P, McNeill M, Fanning L, Ferguson TA, Fradette S; VALOR and OLE Working Group. Trial of Antisense Oligonucleotide Tofersen for SOD1 ALS. N Engl J Med. 2022 Sep 22;387(12):1099-1110. doi: 10.1056/NEJMoa2204705. PMID: 36129998.
Canosa A, Martino A, Manera U, Vasta R, Grassano M, Palumbo F, Cabras S, Di Pede F, Arena V, Moglia C, Giuliani A, Calvo A, Chiò A* Pagani M.* (last joint authors) Role of brain 2-[18F]fluoro-2-deoxy-D-glucose-positron-emission tomography as survival predictor in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Eur J Nucl Med Mol Imaging. 2022 Oct 29. doi: 10.1007/s00259-022-05987-3. PMID: 36308536.
Chio A, Moglia C, Canosa A, Manera U, Grassano M, Vasta R, Palumbo F, Gallone S, Brunetti M, Barberis M, De Marchi F, Dalgard C, Chia R, Mora G, Iazzolino B, Peotta L, Traynor B, Corrado L, D'Alfonso S, Mazzini L, Calvo A. Exploring the phenotype of Italian patients with ALS with intermediate ATXN2 polyQ repeats. J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry. 2022 Aug 25:jnnp-2022-329376. doi: 10.1136/jnnp-2022-329376. PMID: 36008116.
Grassano M, Calvo A, Moglia C, Sbaiz L, Brunetti M, Barberis M, Casale F, Manera U, Vasta R, Canosa A, D'Alfonso S, Corrado L, Mazzini L, Dalgard C, Karra R, Chia R, Traynor B, Chiò A. Systematic evaluation of genetic mutations in ALS: a population-based study. J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry. 2022 Jul 27:jnnp-2022-328931. doi: 10.1136/jnnp-2022-328931. PMID: 35896380.
Faghri F, Brunn F, Dadu A; PARALS consortium; ERRALS consortium, Zucchi E, Martinelli I, Mazzini L, Vasta R, Canosa A, Moglia C, Calvo A, Nalls MA, Campbell RH, Mandrioli J, Traynor BJ, Chiò A. Identifying and predicting amyotrophic lateral sclerosis clinical subgroups: a population-based machine-learning study. Lancet Digit Health. 2022 May;4(5):e359-e369. doi: 10.1016/S2589-7500(21)00274-0. PMID: 35341712.
Iazzolino B, Peotta L, Zucchetti JP, Canosa A, Manera U, Vasta R, Grassano M, Palumbo F, Brunetti M, Barberis M, Sbaiz L, Moglia C, Calvo A, Chiò A. Differential neuropsychological profile of ALS patients with and without C9orf72 mutation. Neurology. 2021 Jan 5;96(1):e141-e152. doi: 10.1212/WNL.0000000000011093.
Chiò A, Moglia C, Canosa A, Manera U, D'Ovidio F, Vasta R, Grassano M, Brunetti M, Barberis M, Corrado L, D'Alfonso S, Iazzolino B, Peotta L, Sarnelli MF, Solara V, Zucchetti JP, De Marchi F, Mazzini L, Mora G, Calvo A. ALS phenotype is influenced by age, sex, and genetics: A population-based study. Neurology. 2020 Feb 25;94(8):e802-e810. doi: 10.1212/WNL.0000000000008869.
Nicolas A, Kenna KP, Renton AE, Ticozzi N, (…), Chiò A, Shaw CE, Traynor BJ, Landers JE. Genome-wide Analyses Identify KIF5A as a Novel ALS Gene. Neuron. 2018 Mar 21;97(6):1268-1283.e6. doi: 10.1016/j.neuron.2018.02.027.
Chiò A, Mazzini L, D'Alfonso S, Corrado L, Canosa A, Moglia C, Manera U, Bersano E, Brunetti M, Barberis M, Veldink JH, van den Berg LH, Pearce N, Sproviero W, McLaughlin R, Vajda A, Hardiman O, Rooney J, Mora G, Calvo A, Al-Chalabi A. The multistep hypothesis of ALS revisited: The role of genetic mutations. Neurology 2018 Aug 14;91(7):e635-e642. doi: 10.1212/WNL.0000000000005996.
Chiò A, Mora G, Moglia C, Manera U, Canosa A, Cammarosano S, Ilardi A, Bertuzzo D, Bersano E, Cugnasco P, Grassano M, Pisano F, Mazzini L, Calvo A; Piemonte and Valle d’Aosta Register for ALS (PARALS). Secular Trends of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis: The Piemonte and Valle d'Aosta Register. JAMA Neurol. 2017; 74(9):1097-1104. doi: 10.1001/jamaneurol.2017.1387.