Prof. Andrea Malaspina

Professor Malaspina is the Clinical-Academic Director of the UCL Queen Square MND Centre, Institute of Neurology, with 20 years of experience in multi-disciplinary care and research in MND / neuromuscular disorders.

His main interest is the characterization of molecular mechanisms of neurodegeneration that can inform novel disease biomarkers and therapeutic targets for MND. He has developed UK-wide longitudinal biobanking projects encompassing the natural history of MND, and he is currently leading the ALS Biomarkers study. He is a co-investigator and a major contributor of international longitudinal natural history studies in ALS, including CREaTE and the Pre-symptomatic Familial Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (Pre-fALS). His research focus on neuroinflammation and neuroaxonal structural decomposition has made him a major contributor to the ALS biomarkers and clinical trial space.

He has been at the forefront of the development and optimization of assays for biomarkers, like neurofilaments, now central to clinical trial design, and of innovative proteomic techniques to study the molecular intersection of tissues and biological fluids. Based on this work, he is the recipient of the Healey ALS Innovation Award in 2023 and a member of the MIROCALS consortium. He leads a group of over 25 basic and clinical translational scientists and health professionals that are an integral part of the newly developed UK-wide consortia, including United To End MND and the UK MND Research Institute.