Ammar Al-Chalabi | |
---|---|
Education | |
Known for | Research on amyotrophic lateral sclerosis |
Awards | Sheila Essey Award from the American Academy of Neurology (2016) |
Scientific career | |
Fields | |
Institutions | King's College London |
Thesis | Genetic risk factors in amytrophic lateral sclerosis (1999) |
Academic advisors | Nigel Leigh |
Ammar Al-Chalabi is Professor of Neurology and Complex Disease Genetics at the Maurice Wohl Clinical Neuroscience Institute at King's College London, where he is also head of the Department of Basic and Clinical Neuroscience and Director of the King's Motor Neuron Disease Research Centre. In 2020, he received the Forbes Norris Award from the International Alliance Of Als/Mnd Associations and was a co-winner of the Healey Center International Prize for Innovation in ALS. His other awards include the Sheila Essey Award from the American Academy of Neurology and the Charcot Young Investigator Award from the Motor Neurone Disease Association. [1] [2] In 2021 he was appointed Senior Investigator at the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR). [3]
Al-Chalabi is married with two sons and is a drummer in a band in his spare time. [4]
As a child, Al-Chalabi hoped to join the Australian Flying Ambulance. [4] His father worked for BP and the family moved often. [4] He was initially rejected from 14 different medical schools, going on to become a leader in his field. [4] After completing neurology training, he worked as a consultant at King's College London in 2000, a research exchange scholar at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard University in 2001. [4]
According to his Lancet profile;
"Chalabi’s collaboration with Robert H Brown Jr, Chair and Professor of Neurology at MGH resulted in the discovery of a chromosome 9p linkage in ALS and frontotemporal dementia. [...] A second related study, with researcher Chris Shaw, now head of the Department of Basic and Clinical Neuroscience at King’s College London, further paved the way for the detection of the most common cause of ALS, the C9orf72 mutation. In 2016, Al-Chalabi and colleagues identified new risk variants and found evidence of ALS being a complex genetic trait with a polygenetic architecture, describing four new ALS genes. [...] [Al-Chalabi] also leads the European JPND STRENGTH consortium, looking at the development of personalised treatments by interaction analysis of various risk factors, and co-leads a UK national ALS register, that aims to record all cases of the disease (of which there are an estimated 5000 at any one time)." [4]
The Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience (IoPPN) is a centre for mental health and neuroscience research, education and training in Europe. It is dedicated to understanding, preventing and treating mental illness, neurological conditions, and other conditions that affect the brain. The IoPPN is a faculty of King's College London, England, and was previously known as the Institute of Psychiatry (IoP).
Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as motor neurone disease (MND) or Lou Gehrig's disease (LGD) in the United States, is a rare, terminal neurodegenerative disorder that results in the progressive loss of both upper and lower motor neurons that normally control voluntary muscle contraction. ALS is the most common form of the motor neuron diseases. ALS often presents in its early stages with gradual muscle stiffness, twitches, weakness, and wasting. Motor neuron loss typically continues until the abilities to eat, speak, move, and, lastly, breathe are all lost. While only 15% of people with ALS also fully develop frontotemporal dementia, an estimated 50% face at least some minor difficulties with thinking and behavior. Depending on which of the aforementioned symptoms develops first, ALS is classified as limb-onset or bulbar-onset.
Rosalie Ferner is Professor of Neurology at Guys and St Thomas's Hospital and the Department of Clinical Neuroscience at King's College London. Ferner is chairperson for the medical advisory board of the national Neuro Foundation. She has is national lead for the nationally commissioned NF1 service since and lead for the London NF2 service.
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Christopher Edward Dennistoun Shaw MBChB, MD, FRACP, FRCP (Hon), FMedSci, FANA is Professor of Neurology and Neurogenetics at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King's College London. He is also Head of the Department of Basic and Clinical Neuroscience, Director of the Maurice Wohl Clinical Neuroscience Institute at King's College London and an Honorary Consultant Neurologist and Neurogeneticist at King's College Hospital. His major research interest is in the genetic, molecular and cellular basis of motor neuron diseases such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).
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Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a neurodegenerative disease that typically affects adults around 54–67 years of age, although anyone can be diagnosed with the disease. People diagnosed with ALS live on average 2–4 years after diagnosis due to the quick progression of the disease. The progression and severity of ALS is rated by doctors on the ALS Functional Rating Scale, which has been revised and is referred to as ALSFRS-R.
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The Sheila Essey Award for ALS Research was established in 1996 and is sponsored by the American Academy of Neurology. The prize is funded through the philanthropy of the Essey family and the ALS Association. The award recognizes an individual who has made seminal research contributions in the search for the cause, prevention of, and cure for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.
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