Magdalena Kegel,  —

Magdalena is a writer with a passion for bridging the gap between the people performing research, and those who want or need to understand it. She writes about medical science and drug discovery. She holds an MS in Pharmaceutical Bioscience and a PhD — spanning the fields of psychiatry, immunology, and neuropharmacology — from Karolinska Institutet in Sweden.

Articles by Magdalena Kegel

ALS End-stage Brain Damage Isn’t Limited to Motor Neurons, Study Finds

Patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) who have progressed to a stage in which they’ve lost all voluntary movements, including the ability to communicate, have damage in numerous brain regions and isn’t limited to motor neurons. The study, “Clinicopathological characteristics of patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis resulting in…

Researchers May Have Solved ALS Molecular Misfolding Mystery

Researchers have identified a factor that prevents SOD1 — a protein causing amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) in a proportion of patients — from misfolding. The finding may advance the development of new drug therapies to stop or slow progression of the disease. The study, “Endogenous macrophage migration inhibitory factor reduces the…

ALS Culprit Protein Chokes Mitochondria, Killing Neurons, According to Recent Discovery

Researchers at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine have shed light on the mechanism by which a protein called TDP-43 kills nerve cells in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and the related disease frontotemporal dementia. The protein causes neurodegeneration by getting stuck inside mitochondria, preventing these cellular powerhouses from providing energy…

Genetic Splicing Tool Defective in ALS and SMA, Possibly Offering Clues to Treatment

A molecular discovery explaining how motor neuron disease develops draws additional parallels between amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and another neurodegenerative disease, spinal muscular atrophy (SMA). The study, titled “Disruption of snRNP biogenesis factors Tgs1 and pICln induces phenotypes that mirror aspects of SMN-Gemins complex perturbation in Drosophila, providing new insights…