Meet the centre: Aalborg University Hospital
March 12, 2025
Last year, five new ALS centres joined the TRICALS consortium, including Aalborg University Hospital. Located in the Northern part of Denmark, this centre has shown great enthusiasm for collaborating with TRICALS. In this “Meet the Centre” feature, we introduce you to their work and contributions to ALS research.
Jakob Blicher, the current head of the centre, moved to the Aalborg University Hospital three years ago for a full professorship. He is also the director of all research activities at the Department of neurology. Together with Izabella Obál, he leads the ALS Centre. Jakob Blicher: “Izabella focuses on current research in ALS oriented towards biomarkers, genetic, metabolic and neuroinflammatory implications and is involved in Industry sponsored ALS studies and I primary work on our own Investigator initiated trials with a focus on understanding ALS pathophysiology.”
Northern region of Denmark
Neuroimaging and neurophysiology
“One of our expertises is studying disease pathology using advanced neuroimaging and neurophysiology, often in close collaboration with our colleagues at Aarhus University Hospital (also a TRICALS center). “We especially try to look at the differences in the brain between ALS, ALS mimics and healthy subjects. We see for example that excitatory/inhibitory brain activity is different between ALS patients and mimic disorders. Using advanced brain imaging we recently showed lactate production in the brain of an ALS patient and in another recent study we found that activity in the primary motor cortex is preserved in very advanced stages of ALS raising the hope that braincells are still alive at this stage”
Read the article about lactate production here
Read the article about preserved activity in the primary motor cortex here
“To study basic processes in ALS and to investigate possible biomarkers our centre set up a biobank for both symptomatic ALS patients and presymptomatic individuals, carrying ALS-related gene variants. In close collaboration with regional startup pharma we aim to develop novel treatments for ALS.”
Engineering School
Besides, Aalborg University has a big engineering school. Blicher: “We have one of the best Engineering Schools of Europe. They work a lot on robotics and brain computer interfaces, which is a field that tries to connect the electrical activity of our brain with an external device.”
“The needs of ALS patients change fast over time. At one point the disease progresses to a stage in which communication gets very difficult. For patients with mechanical ventilations, communication is often maintained through eye-movements. We’ve collaborated with the Engineering school on assistive devices, such as robotic arms or computer-controlled exoskeletons and we aim to apply these techniques for communication as well.”
Future
“These innovations are very important to be able to improve the care of ALS patients. But besides care, clinical trials are also very much needed to ultimately find a cure for ALS. We hope that after joining TRICALS we will expand our possibilities to do clinical trials testing new drugs for ALS at Aalborg University Hospital.”Last year, five new ALS centers joined the TRICALS consortium, including Aalborg University Hospital. Located in the northern part of Denmark, this center has shown great enthusiasm for collaborating with TRICALS. In this “Meet the Centre” feature, we introduce you to their work and contributions to ALS research.
