Presentations at the 2025 ENCALS scientific conference
Jun 2025: Highlighting our early-career researchers who are presenting their work at this year's European Network to Cure ALS conference.
The ENCALS annual conference is an opportunity for MND researchers across Europe to get together, discuss findings and forge new collaborations. The 2025 meeting is being held in Turin Italy on 3 – 6 June. This year we are pleased to see many of our early-career researchers presenting their research, and to have provided bursaries for attendance.
The presentations by Euan MacDonald Centre research members are as follows.
We wish good luck to them all!
Helena Chaytow, University of Edinburgh
Helena is a postdoctoral researcher supervised by Dr Tom Gillingwater at the University of Edinburgh. Her research is focused on therapy development in preclinical models of ALS.
Helena will be presenting a poster on Thursday 5 June, poster session B.
Title: The CCL2-CCR2 axis drives neuromuscular denervation in ALS
Marcus Keatinge, University of Edinburgh
Marcus is a postdoctoral research fellow supervised by Prof Chandran and Dr Bhuvaneish Selvaraj at the University of Edinburgh. Marcus's research focuses on using the zebrafish to model ALS in order to understand the contributions of oligodendrocytes to neurodegeneration.
Marcus will be presenting an oral presentation on Friday 6 June, session 7.
Title: Deconstructing the roles of oligodendrocytes and neurons in mediating TDP43- related ALS neurodegeneration
Tatiana Langerova, University of Aberdeen
Tatiana is a second year PhD student supervised by Prof Jenna Gregory at the University of Aberdeen. Her research is focused on the early manifestation of neurodegenerative diseases in peripheral organ systems.
Tatiana will be presenting a poster on Thursday 5 June, poster session B.
Title: Spatial transcriptomic analysis of a cohort of C9 ALSFTSD brain tissue
She will also be presenting an oral presentation on Friday 6 June, session 7.
Title: Lower gastrointestinal tract TDP-43 proteinopathy is a predictive biomarker of specific neurodegenerative disease and confers life limiting prognosis
Santiago Mora Parada, University of St Andrews
Santiago is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of St Andrews and is supervised by Dr Ilary Allodi. His research focuses on the inhibitory interneurons in the spinal cord in ALS, their contribution to the disease and how to rescue the connectivity deficits.
Santiago will be presenting an oral presentation on Thursday 5 June, session 5.
Title: Spatial transcriptomics reveals early changes in inhibitory synaptic transmission in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis
Kristine Roberts, University of Aberdeen
Kristine is a CSO/MND Scotland Pre-doctoral Fellow and Senior Biomedical Scientist at the University of Aberdeen, she is supervised by Prof Jenna Gregory.
Kristine will be presenting two posters at this year’s ENCALS meeting.
Her first poster will be in session A, on Wednesday 4 June
Title: Soluble CTLA4 as a theragnostic approach to modulating adaptive immune response in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis
Kristine's second poster will be in session B, on Thursday 5 June
Title: Leveraging the adaptive immune response to personalise treatment in ALS, a systematic review and meta-analysis
Johnny Tam, University of Edinburgh
Johnny is a Rowling & Hugh S.P. Binnie Scholar supervised by Prof Suvankar Pal at the University of Edinburgh. Johnny is investigating how we can use digital technology to improve the monitoring of neurological disease.
Johnny will be presenting a poster on Thursday 5 June, poster session B.
Title: Acoustic speech analysis and machine learning in the diagnosis and monitoring of motor neuron disease
Orjona Stella Taso
Orjona (also known as Stella) is a PhD student in the Precision Medicine Doctoral Training Programme at the University of Edinburgh, co-supervised by Professor Jenna Gregory at the University of Aberdeen. Her research focuses on modelling ALS using iPSC-derived motor neurons and glial cells to investigate non-cell autonomous mechanisms of neurodegeneration.
She will be presenting two posters on Thursday 5 June, poster session B.
Title: Novel TDP-43 aptamers identify early aggregation events in C9orf72 mutant human motor neurons
Title: Understanding the burden of TDP-43 pathology in ALS: Molecular stratification for improved patient classification and therapeutic targeting
Stella will also be giving an oral presentation on Friday 6 June session 8.
Title: Neurodevelopmental disruptions by C9orf72 expansion and TDP-43 mislocalization in ALS
Beck Strohmer, visiting scientist University of St Andrews
Beck Strohmer, is based at the University of Copenhagen and is a visiting scientist at the University of St Andrews supervised by Dr Ilary Allodi.
Beck will be presenting a poster on Wednesday 4 June, poster session A.
Title: Predicting therapeutic windows for synaptic intervention in ALS using a computational model
Relevant links
ENCALS 2025 programme (external website)
Image credit: ENCALS (European Network to Cure ALS)