Laura Ferraiuolo

Laura Ferraiuolo is a third year PhD student at the University of Sheffield under the supervision of Prof Pam Shaw and Dr Janine Kirby. Laura's project involves the study of the gene expression profile of motor neurons isolated from the spinal cord of G93A mice using microarray chips.

What has been the highlight of your day?

Delegate reporter I think that one of the most innovative and fascinating messages of today's sessions was highlighted in the opening session by Dr Michael Strong and was recalled by several other speakers.

In his talk Dr Strong underlined the crucial role that mRNA stability plays in motor neurons. Alteration in this mechanism may be a common pathway to both sporadic and familial ALS cases.

What message would you give to someone with MND about what you've learnt so far?

A lot of work has been done on ALS/MND in the past two decades and the
understanding we have of this disease has greatly progressed and it will
keep progressing.

Which presentation did you find most interesting?

I followed with great interest the talk given by Dr Wiedau-Pazos on
transgenic motor neurons derived from human embryonic stem cells.

The use of stem cells in ALS/MND is certainly one of the tools of the future and, apart from being an interesting tool for our research, could also have a therapeutic impact.

Who has made the biggest impression on you?

Being a microarray person, I really enjoyed the talk given by Prof. Shaw on behalf of Dr. Mirnics. It was an excellent overview of advantages and difficulties in the use of this technique.

How will what you have learnt at the symposium influence your future work?

I think I will always try to look at my results with open mind, trying to
find connections with the great amount of data already available.

I'll definitely go back to my lists of genes and look at them again and again, thinking of the results presented today.