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2016 Annette Funicello Award Recipients Announced

The 2016 "Annette Funicello Award"
FERRARA, Italy, July 1, 2016:  The Annette Funicello Research Fund for Neurological Diseases has announced the 2016 recipients of “The Annette Funicello Award.”

The renowned research fund, founded in 1993 by the late entertainer and humanitarian Annette Funicello and her husband, Glen Holt, has awarded this year’s prize in recognition of the neurological research of Dr. Paolo Zamboni and as conducted aboard the International Space Station by Astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti.
 
Dr. Zamboni serves at the University of Ferrara (Italy) as a professor in the Department of Morphology, Surgery and Experimental Medicine and is director of the Vascular Diseases Center. 
 
Dr. Zamboni’s experiments were conducted during 2015 aboard the International Space Station (Expedition 42 / 43) by Italian Space Agency Astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti.  As a result of this extended space mission, Captain Cristoforetti now holds the record for the longest single space flight by any woman in history.  Her work, as a member of the European Space Agency’s Futura mission brought her to international prominence during the flight for leading students 8 – 12 years of age in a televised nine-week physical fitness program, “Mission X:  Train Like an Astronaut.”

The 2016 prize was awarded to Prof. Zamboni and Capt. Cristoforetti for important effects on patients suffering from neurodegenerative diseases.  The “brain drain” experiments were carried out for the first time on the International Space Station and linked to the measurement of blood flow returning from the brain to the heart through a plethysmographic collar.
 
"This award honors me greatly and highlights the originality of research in our university (which) sees doctors and physicists work shoulder to shoulder” commented Dr. Zamboni.  “In the programs of the next three years, we have indeed entered the development of diagnostic screening systems that must obey three basic principles: use "green" energy (no radiation for patients), improve the quality and reproducibility, cost little and allow remote diagnosis. "

The California-based research fund carries the name of Annette Funicello, best known for her popular roles in Walt Disney television programs, films and hit records.  Funicello died in 2013 due to a severe neurodegenerative disease.  The Annette Funicello Research Fund is responsible for funding research on the causes, treatment and care of multiple sclerosis and other neurological diseases.
 
More information on the Zamboni / Cristoforetti “brain drain” experiments can be found at the NASA web site for the International Space Station (ISS):   http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/1278.html

Samantha Cristoforetti (left) and Dr. Paolo Zamboni (right) were selected as the 2016 recipients of "The Annette Funicello Award", in recognition of their research efforts on behalf of neurological patients and their families.

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