[5] In mid-2010, two years after Lorenzo's death, Augusto Odone sold his home in Virginia and moved to Acqui Terme in his native Italy, near his father's village of Gamalero where he lived when he was young.
Augusto and Michaela refused to accept this prognosis as final, and fought to find a treatment for the disease, often conflicting with doctors, specialist and support groups.
[10] The Odones had an important role in developing Lorenzo's oil and in setting up The Myelin Project, which promotes and carries out research on ALD and other similar disorders.
Michaela also insisted on continuing to treat her incapacitated son as a human being and not a "vegetable", helping him devise a means of communicating with her and others through the blinking of his eyes and the wiggling of his fingers.
The Odones' story was first depicted in the 1990 Italian television film Voglia di vivere, starring Tomas Milian and Dominique Sanda.
[11] It was later made into the 1992 film Lorenzo's Oil, in which Augusto was played by Nick Nolte and Michaela by Susan Sarandon, who, through her involvement with the movie, became the spokesperson of The Myelin Project.