Publication overview

Research center

Villa delle Ginestre Hospital

Palermo, Italy

Villa delle Ginestre Hospital

About the center

Our ALS Center is located within the Villa delle Ginestre Hospital, one of the largest public rehabilitation hospitals in Sicily. The Center operates both inpatient and outpatient clinics, providing advanced diagnostics and comprehensive care across the full spectrum of ALS.
Our clinical expertise encompasses nutritional assessment and alternative feeding, swallowing evaluation and dysphagia management, invasive and non-invasive respiratory therapies, as well as rehabilitation and palliative care. We also offer patients and their families dedicated genetic counseling and diagnostics, developed in close collaboration with leading genetic specialists in Italy and internationally.
We are involved in several research projects across different fields and participate in international multicenter clinical trials.

Rossella Spataro

Neurologist, leads the Rare Diseases Center at the Rehabilitation Hospital "Villa delle Ginestre" in Palermo.

Villa delle Ginestre Hospital

Rossella Spataro

Neurologist, leads the Rare Diseases Center at the Rehabilitation Hospital "Villa delle Ginestre" in Palermo.

Rossella Spataro, MD, Ph.D., Neurologist, leads the Rare Diseases Center at the Rehabilitation Hospital “Villa delle Ginestre” in Palermo.

The Center offers comprehensive diagnostic, management, and rehabilitation services for individuals affected by amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and a broad spectrum of rare and genetic disorders.

Her research encompasses the genetic determinants of ALS, the complex clinical variables influencing prognosis in ALS patients, and the development of brain-computer interface technologies to investigate communication and cognitive functions in individuals with locked-in syndrome and disorders of consciousness. Her work also addresses palliative care and end-of-life issues.

Dr. Spataro research activity was granted with a Marie Curie Individual Fellowship from the European Commission and a Young Investigator Grant from the Italian Ministry of Health.

 

Francesca Luisa Conforti

Professor of Medical Genetics at the University of Calabria

Villa delle Ginestre Hospital

Francesca Luisa Conforti

Professor of Medical Genetics at the University of Calabria

Francesca Luisa Conforti, PhD, is Professor of Medical Genetics at the University of Calabria. Her scientific career is dedicated to elucidating the genetic architecture of multifactorial and monogenic neurodegenerative disorders. Her work primarily focuses on the genetics of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS).