Prof. Ruben J Cauchi from the Department of Physiology and Biochemistry and the Centre for Molecular Medicine and Biobanking was an invited speaker at the 20th national Italian Drosophila Research Conference (IDRC) held at the IFOM (Istituto Fondazione di Oncologia Molecolare) in Milan.
The scientific programme featured talks on latest advances in various fields including cancer, neurodevelopment, neurodegeneration, mechanobiology and cell biology by experts in renowned Universities and institutes in Europe including the DKFZ German Cancer Research Centre (Germany), University of Rome La Sapienza (Italy), MRC Laboratory of Medical Sciences (UK), Institute Curie (France), University of Edinburgh (UK), University of Milan (Italy) and the iBV Institute of Biologie Valrose (France).
This biannual IDRC meetings gather researchers at all career stages, mainly from Italy, that use the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster as model organism across research fields. This meeting promotes exchange of results, ideas, expertise and tools in a friendly setting, and constitutes an important occasion to establish new collaborations or consolidate existing ones.
Prof. Cauchi’s presented the latest advances on ALS by the Motor Neuron Disease Laboratory at the University of Malta.
Genetic risk for ALS, a fatal progressive motor neuron degenerative disease, is highly elevated in island populations like Malta. To confirm role of genes in causing the disease, Prof. Cauchi’s team has been genetically engineering fruit flies that mirror Maltese ALS patients.
Initial research on a crucial genetic risk factor indicates that this is a meaningful contributor to ALS considering that newly developed fly models show ALS-like symptoms and pathology.
Importantly, Prof. Cauchi presented unpublished evidence on the molecular mechanism driving ALS with this opening up possible avenues for therapeutic development to slow or halt the disease.