Björn Vahsen, Henk-Jan Westeneng and Roisin McMackin winners ENCALS Young Investigator Award 2025

Björn Vahsen, Henk-Jan Westeneng and Roisin McMackin are the winners of the ENCALS Young Investigator Awards 2025 in Turin, Italy. Prof. Orla Hardiman, on behalf of Prof. Ammar Al-Chalabi (chair of the Award Committee) awarded the special price to the young and bright researchers for their contribution and outstanding research on ALS.

Dr. Björn Vahsen, Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences, University of Oxford

Björn Vahsen is a post-doctoral researcher in the ALS Cellular Modelling Group in the Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences. His research focuses on the mechanistic contribution of microglia to ALS pathogenesis, using patient-derived iPSC models to investigate neuron-microglia interactions. Over the past few years, he has developed new human iPSC-based co-culture systems that enable the study of microglial contributions to motor neuron degeneration, with a particular focus on the C9orf72-ALS/FTD mutation. His goal is to establish an independent research group that uses these platforms to dissect the mechanisms of neuroinflammation and uncover novel therapeutic targets in ALS and FTD.

His work generated a foundational paper characterising the co-culture model (Vahsen BF, et al. Sci Rep. 2022, PMID: 35871163) and a Nature Communications paper identifying a novel cell autonomous effect of microglia in ALS pathogenesis (Vahsen BF, et al Nat Commun. 2023, PMID: 37736756). Bjorn also wrote two major review articles published in Cell Stem Cell and Nature Reviews Neurology.

Dr. Henk-Jan Westeneng, Department of Neurology, University Medical Center Utrecht

Henk-Jan Westeneng’s research aims to disentangle the multifaceted nature of ALS to accelerate the search for curation and prevention of ALS. He pursues this objective using imaging, epidemiology, and prediction with firm connections to genetics and trial design. He developed and validated the ENCALS survival prediction model (HJ Westeneng et al., Lancet Neurology 2018) in collaboration with the ENCALS community, leveraging data from over 11,000 ALS patients. It is widely applied for counseling ALS patients and optimizing trial design (RPA van Eijk, HJ Westeneng et al., Neurology 2019) and is actively used in numerous clinical trials globally.

His epidemiological research has advanced our understanding of gene-environment interactions and the role of lifestyle factors in ALS risk during the presymptomatic phase. This work, the largest longitudinal case-control study in ALS to date, highlights opportunities to mitigate ALS risk. Additionally, He amassed the world’s largest single center MRI dataset of ALS patients and asymptomatic ALS-related mutation carriers.

Dr. Róisín McMackin, Academic Unit of Neurology, The University of Dublin, Trinity College

Róisín McMackin’s work has focused on development of an array of sensitive EEG- and TMS-based biomarkers to enable detection of pathophysiologic ally-distinct ALS subphenotypes and improve clinical trial stratification and outcome measurement. She and her team employ 128-channel EEG during tasks designed to engage networks which underpin symptoms of ALS including disinhibition, impaired attention, language dysfunction, social cognitive impairment and motor control. They also apply threshold tracking TMS (TT-TMS) with EMG to measure motor cortical network function. Using novel sensor- and source-space analyses they aim to provide temporospatial-specific measurements of network dysfunction which occurs in ALS and relates to prognosis.

Roisin’s work particularly focuses on undertaking clinically translatable research, which can lead to more accurate detection, prediction and treatment ALS.

The ENCALS Young Investigator Award

The ENCALS Young Investigator Award was designed to recognize the brightest and best young scientists in ALS and is awarded yearly at the ENCALS meeting for outstanding research. It is judged by the ENCALS Award Committee, an international panel of experts lead by prof. Ammar Al-Chalabi. Criteria include any or all of novelty, challenge to existing ideas about ALS, results with patient benefit, and impact on our understanding of ALS.

If you want to apply for the ENCALS Young Investigator Award, keep an eye on our website. The next opportunity for applications will open at the beginning of 2026.