Notably, OMNs express several neuroprotective genes, including the calcium-regulating protein parvalbumin and insulin-like growth factor 2 (IGF-2) [10, 29, 56], which can protect mouse [29, 67] and human spinal motor neurons [2] from ALS- and SMA-like toxicity. Here, PVALB is linked to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.