$50,000 awarded to Elsa Tremblay at Université de Montréal, Quebec.
“My research is focused on the neuromuscular junction. This is the connection between the motor neuron and the muscle. So for example, when you want to perform a voluntary movement, then the command is traveling by the motor neuron into your spinal cord, and then finally will reach the muscle in order to perform the movement. But what happens in ALS is that the connection between the motor neuron and the muscle is progressively disconnected. So it’s like a bridge that disintegrates. So the message can no longer be sent. So I’m working to understand what’s making it happen, why is this disconnection and malfunction happening, and trying, maybe, to find therapeutic strategy to work on it.”
Find out more by reading our interview blog.