The ALS Society of Canada (ALS Canada) is pleased to continue its collaboration with Shionogi Canada (previously Tanabe Pharma Canada) to advance excellence in ALS clinical care through The Shionogi Canada Fellowship (previously the Tanabe Pharma Canada Fellowship). This annual fellowship supports emerging clinicians and researchers who are committed to improving care for people living with ALS while strengthening their research expertise.
This year, Dr. Pedro Saldanha de Castro will receive $100,000 over one year to support his work at Sunnybrook Research Institute under the supervision of Dr. Agessandro Abrahao.
“Shionogi Canada’s continued commitment enables ALS Canada to invest in the development of early career researchers across the ALS ecosystem,” said Dr. David Taylor, Chief Scientific Officer at ALS Canada. “By applying Dr. Saldanha de Castro’s novel integration of two well-studied approaches, this project may help clarify the biological drivers of disease variability in ALS, inform more precise clinical trial design, and support the development of personalized therapeutic strategies.”
The 2025 fellowship project titled, Innovative multimodal 7T MR imaging to assess cortical excitability and disease subtypes in ALS, aims to use advanced neuroimaging and other tests to compare two groups of people living with ALS: those whose neurons are overactive and those whose neurons are less active. By doing this, the team hopes to identify differences in brain chemistry, structure, and clinical severity between ALS subtypes. They will also validate a novel Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy method for measuring neurochemicals across large brain regions, which could help doctors better understand the disease and develop treatments tailored to each person’s needs.
ALS Canada is grateful to Shionogi Canada for its continued partnership and shared commitment to fostering the next generation of ALS clinical leaders.
For more information about the ALS Canada Research Program, visit als.ca/research/our-research-program.