Join the fight and help us discover the genetic basis of ALS. Start or support a local initiative to raise funds. Project MinE, make it yours!
La totalité des dons est utilisée pour l’analyse des profils ADN.
The ALS Unit at Hospital La Paz – Carlos III in Madrid and FUNDELA, the Spanish ALS Research Foundation, are partners in Project MinE and aim to sequence 750 DNA samples. If the project goes well in Spain, this goal could be increased to 1,000 DNA samples in the future.
The ALS Unit at Hospital La Paz-Carlos III, part of the La Paz University Hospitals Complex, is the oldest and largest ALS Unit in Spain. It provides integral care for patients from all over Spain as well as experimental therapies through clinical trials. The Unit works on and collaborates with other European centers in several research projects related to the search for biomarkers, genetic causes, quality of life issues, and measurement of progression. We are convinced that the causes of ALS can only be unraveled through international collaborations, such as Project MinE.
Hospital La Paz-Carlos III in Madrid
In Spain, we have several ambassadors for Project MinE.
As the aunt of an ALS patient, D. Fernando Schwartz is very involved in the ALS community.
He is a former ambassador of Spain to the Netherlands and previously to Kuwait and Bahrein, and retired from diplomatic service to join Spain’s foremost daily, El País, to write leaders on international politics. In 1992, after a stint as communications director of the parent company, Prisa, Fernando became anchorman in one of TV’s most successful daily talk shows, Lo+Plus. As a writer, he is the author of 15 novels, one of which, The Misencounter, was awarded the Planeta Prize. The novel told of the tragedy of a woman affected by ALS. The actual character was Schwartz’s maternal aunt.
As the daughter of an ALS patient, Prof. Solas is very involved in the ALS community.
In her research she has directed doctoral thesis on various aspects of ALS as well as publications on an experimental model of sporadic ALS.
As the husband of an ALS patient, D. Adolfo Martínez is very involved in the ALS community.
The Spanish international football player Fernando Torres is proud to be ambassador for Project MinE and the fight against ALS. Fernando is forwarder of the Spanish National team (already 110 times), he’s won the Nation’s World Cup, the Nation’s European Cup twice, the Europe Champion’s League and the UEFA Europe’s League. Fernando played with Liverpool, Chelsea, AC Milan and currently again with Atlético de Madrid.
Fernando Torres presented a 2016 calendar to raise funds for FUNDELA and ProjectMinE. Read more.
Carlos Matallanas (Madrid, 18-4-1981) was balancing his career as a journalist with his activities as a semi-professional football player when, in June 2014, he was diagnosed with ALS. From that moment on, he has devoted his efforts to the search of a cure for this neurodegenerative disease. Sadly, he past away March 2021.
Through his blog, Mi batalla contra la ELA (My struggle against ALS), he was determined to raising awareness on the degradation of the body as a consequence of ALS, a disease that could affect any of us. Carlos Matallanas pinned his hopes on Project MinE, raising funds through the FUNDELA foundation and, with the help of friends and family, organizing multiple events.
“The funds raised are not for me, they’re for all of us, for those that are already sick as well as for those that have not yet been affected by this terrible lottery that is ALS”
Javier has combined the studies and then the profession of Journalist with a modest but intense career as a semi-professional footballer in Madrid and Andalusia. In 2007 he joined the Sports section of El Confidencial. In 2014, at the age of 33, being coordinator of the section and still as an active player, he is diagnosed with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), a serious neurodegenerative disease.
Project MinE research in Spain is performed at the ALS Unit at Hospital La Paz-Carlos III in Madrid.
mariadelia.chaverri@salud.madrid.org or +34(0)914532500
Prof. Pardina is chief neurologist at Hospital La Paz-Carlos III. He has been trained at Massachusetts General Hospital and Tufts Medical Center in Boston. At the ALS Unit in Madrid, he and his staff have dedicated their efforts to improve the quality of life of Spanish patients after a long and persistent struggle to introduce the concept of high resolution integrated multidisciplinary care, the need of experimental treatments and patients associations support in Spain.
Since the late nineties, Dr Delia Chaverri has served as neurologist at the Hospital Carlos III. There, she met Dr Mora and worked with him to create and develop the first ALS unit in Spain. Devoted mainly to patients care, she has participated in a large number of ALS international clinical trials. In 2014 the Hospital merged with Hospital La Paz, forming now a single institution where she coordinates the ALS unit. More than 300 patients are treated regularly at the unit by a high level multidisciplinary team.
In Spain fundraising for Project MinE is led by FUNDELA (Fundación Española para el Fomento de la Investigación de la ELA).
