2024 FARA Fellows

FARA established the FARA Fellow Program to recognize young investigators who have demonstrated or hold promise for outstanding research achievements in Friedreich Ataxia (FA) and will commit their early career to FA research. The aim of the program is to attract and retain talented young scientists to the FA research field by providing mentorship, training, and networking opportunities.

2024 FARA Fellow Awards

• Elisabetta Indelicato, MD, PhD
  Medical University of Innsbruck
  Dr. Indelicato is a clinician scientist completing her Neurology residency. She received her Medical Degree at La Sapienza University in Rome and her PhD from the Medical University of Innsbruck. She was awarded a Postdoctoral Research Award from FARA in 2021 to study iron dysregulation in FA.
• Roderick Maas, MD, PhD
  Radboud University Medical Center
  Dr. Maas received his MD and PhD from Radboud University and is now a sixth-year Resident in Neurology and Clinical Neurophysiology. He was recently awarded a FARA grant to use ultrasound and MRI to study nerves in FA patients.
• Federica Pilotto, PhD
  Institute Neuromyogene Lyon
  Dr. Pilotto is a second-year postdoc. She began her neuroscience career at the University of Torino studying two intellectual disability disorders, Rett syndrome and CDKL5 disorder, and during her PhD at the University of Bern conducted groundbreaking research on ALS and SCA1. Her project aims at uncovering disruptions in synaptic and circuit-related processes in the FA brain.
• Pouiré Yameogo
  UT Southwestern, Dallas TX
  Dr. Yameogo is a second-year postdoc and previous recipient of the FARA Fellow Award. He received his Ph.D. at the Université Laval, Quebec City, with a project on developing a gene editing approach for FA. His research project will develop antisense oligonucleotides to increase FXN transcription and target point mutations in the FXN gene.