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(AGI) - Rome, Italy, Oct 15 - The Health Minister, Girolamo Sirchia, has set up a Commission for Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), a neurodegenerative disease with progressive course.

The Commission, chaired by the chairman of the Superior Health Institute, Enrico Garaci, says an annotation from the Health minister, will have the task to guarantee the patients suffering from ALS the correct application of therapeutic and assistance programs consistent with the highest national and international standards, to obtain the best life quality possible.

To do this, the Commission will promote research aimed to determine the biological markers of the disease, to determine innovative pharmacological therapies, cell-mediate for genic therapy, the widening to five centres for the experimentation with autologic stem cells.

The members of the Commission are: Caterina Bendotti from the Mario Negri Institute of Milano, Maria Teresa Carri' from the University of Tor Vergata in Rome, Adriano Chio' from the University of Turin, Maria Elena Congiu from the general direction of the Health Program of the Health Ministry, Massimo Corbo and Vincenzo Silani from the Italian Auxologic Institute in Milan, Cinzia Gellera from the Carlo Besta Institute in Milan, Letizia Mazzini from the San Giovanni Bosco hospital in Turin, Maurizio Pocchiari from the Superior Health Institute and Ivan Torrente from the Maggiore hospital in Milan.