During the award ceremony Prof. Ammar Al-Chalabi, as chair of the ENCALS Award Committee, praised both Rubika and Ratko for their contribution to ALS research. They are trained in different fields of expertise; Rubika is a clinician scientist in translational research and Ratko’s expertise is clinical psychology. Rubika is a Clinical Training Fellow/NIHR Clinical Lecturer at UCL Queen Square Institite of Neurolog and a Speciality Registrar in Neurology and the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery, UCLH.

Rubika studied medicine at the University of Cambridge and University College London. She trained as an NIHR Academic Foundation Doctor at the University of Cambridge, and subsequently as an NIHR Academic Clinical Fellow at King’s College London. Meeting people with ALS led to her desire to focus her research in this field. Her initial research centred on improving clinical care through use of an ALS staging system. Rubika used multicentre patient databases to validate disease staging and demonstrate its potential utility as an adjunctive measure in clinical trials.

This was followed by a PhD funded by the Leonard Wolfson Experimental Neurology Centre and the Wellcome Trust, and postdoctoral work as an NIHR Academic Clinical Lecturer, with funding from the Academy of Medical Sciences. During this time Rubika investigated molecular mechanisms and therapeutic strategies in ALS/FTD caused by C9orf72 mutations. She performed a remarkable series of experiments to investigate dipeptide repeat protein binding to RNA, highlighting a novel disease mechanism. In another project she treated stem cell-derived neurons and an in vivo Drosophila model with small molecules targeting C9orf72 repeat RNA G-quadruplexes, demonstrating amelioration of key disease pathologies. She is committed to translating findings from basic science into developing innovative approaches to treat ALS and FTD.

"I am incredibly grateful and honoured to be the recipient of this prestigious Award. I have dedicated my career to ALS and FTD research, and it means a great deal to be selected. I am very thankful to the ENCALS Award Committee for their recognition. My research would not have been possible without a team of many other people, including people living with ALS and FTD who have donated cells for stem cell research and contributed to the clinical databases and trials I studied. I have been privileged to have had the support of brilliant supervisors, mentors, colleagues, collaborators and funders, working towards a common goal of understanding and treating these diseases." Dr Rubika Balendra

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 2025.

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  • Left to right: Dr. Ratko Radakovic, Dr. Rubika Balendra, Prof. Ammar Al-Chalabi