Reading Time: 2 minutes MND Association-funded researchers from the University of Liverpool have published results in the prestigious open access journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Science. Under the leadership of Prof Samar Hasnain, the researchers identified that some TDP-43 mutant proteins hang around in the cell longer and become more stable, possibly leading to neurodegeneration in MND. Although…
Reading Time: 5 minutes Victoria Pugh is studying for her PhD at the Universities of Bradford and Reading, which is funded by the MND Association. Under the leadership of Prof Marcus Rattray she is looking at the drug riluzole and how to make it better. Victoria also presented a poster of her research during the 24th International Symposium on ALS/MND…
Reading Time: 4 minutes With Pantomime season kicking off back home in the UK, delegates in Milan were introduced to one of the newest cellular villains in the MND story – oligodendrocytes. Although oligodendrocytes were first identified in the 1920s and are known to be affected in multiple sclerosis, they were generally considered as ‘bit part’ players in MND…
Reading Time: 3 minutes Following on from the two talks on genetic testing; the first day of the 24th International Symposium on ALS/MND continued with a number of high quality research talks on topics such as screening for cognitive change and RNA processing. Miss Hikari Ando (The Walton Centre NHS Foundation Trust) presented her research on Friday 6 December…
Reading Time: 5 minutes The 24th International Symposium on ALS/MND began in Milan today with a record number of over 950 delegates attending to hear the latest news in MND research. Inherited MND is a rare form of MND characterised by a family history of the disease. Over recent years more and more genes have been discovered, which has…
Reading Time: 3 minutes Hot on the heels of ‘Brain Awareness Week’, comes ‘National Science Week’, with the University of Sheffield enthusiastically organising a numerous activities in their week-long Festival of Science and Engineering, including today’s Open Day at the Sheffield Institute of Translational Neuroscience (SITraN). This event was to include talks by Dr Chris McDermott and Prof Pam…
Reading Time: 3 minutes The phrase ‘Share nicely’ is one that I associate with children sharing their toys, sweets and perhaps even Wii time. However, it works well in a research context too. A steady momentum has been building of new ways to share, so I wanted to write a post to highlight them. For the last 23 years…
Reading Time: 3 minutes Published in the prestigious journal Nature Communications and funded by the Wellcome Trust, University of Bath researchers looked closely at the structure of 11 mutated angiogenin proteins, and how changes in their structure influenced activity, function and survival in motor neurones. Dr Brian Dickie, Director of Research at the Association, said “The researchers at the…
