IDIBELL and the Temporing Group Company, headquartered in Barcelona, have reached a sponsorship agreement to boost funding for research on amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Temporing is one of the temporary employment agencies most prestigious in the Spanish market, backed by fifteen years of experience, and integrate more than one hundred forty professionals in human resources. Its mission is to offer its customers integrated solutions in human resources, procuring the incorporation of collaborators who contribute to their competitiveness, profitability and growth, while respecting their code of values.
The monetary amount of the donation, amounting to 1,200 euros per month, will be managed by Dr. Povedano Monica, who is a researcher of the group of Neurological Diseases and Neurogenetics of IDIBELL, led a research project on ALS. Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis is a neurodegenerative disease with low incidence and prevalence, which attacks the nerve cells that control voluntary muscles. In ALS, motor neurons degenerate or die and stop sending messages to the muscles, which weaken and end up atrophied. Patients of this disease lose their strength and ability to move their arms, legs and body. When muscles in the diaphragm and chest wall fail, patients lose the ability to breathe without a ventilator or respirator. Most people with ALS die from respiratory failure.
The functional Unit for motor neuron from Bellvitge University Hospital, where Dr. Povedano plays a significant role as facultative medical care, visits a large number of patients from different areas of the country. However, at present, neither the prevalence of the disease in our territory or the geographic distribution of patients is known. The money from this sponsorship agreement will be used to determine the geographical distribution of ALS patients, and to assess the clinical and phenotypic characteristics of patients who have been followed in the unit in the last 20 years in order to discover if variations of these data can be related to the influence of environmental factors. The study in question is carried out in collaboration with health statisticians of the University of Girona.
The recent agreement is one of the fruits of the initiation, in our institution, of a fundraising strategy. In other lines of action, this strategy, initiated in early 2016, already has managed to channel funds to different projects by organizing awareness campaigns related to sports activities (such as L’Hospitalet night race, or the Mediterranean Marathon), or cultural, as a solidarity theater with La Caixa volunteers, or solidarity Christmas concerts.