Reading Time: 4 minutes MND Association and Alzheimer’s Research UK-funded researchers from University College London have identified that toxic proteins may cause motor neurones to die in C9orf72 MND and frontotemporal dementia. Published open access in the journal Science on Thursday 7 August, this research explains more about one of the most common forms of inherited MND.
Reading Time: 3 minutes Dr Andrea Malaspina is an Association-funded researcher investigating biomarkers, or ‘biological fingerprints’ of MND. Here he blogs about working with patients and basic science. I regularly meet people living with MND due to my role as a Consultant Neurologist at the Bart’s and the London MND Care Centre and one of the most common questions…
Reading Time: 4 minutes MND Association-funded researcher, Prof Linda Greensmith, based at University College London, together with her collaborator Dr Ivo Lieberam from Kings College London, have introduced stem cell-derived motor neurones into mice. Published in the prestigious journal Science on 4 April 2014, her research has also demonstrated that muscle function can be controlled by light. Modelling MND…
Reading Time: 4 minutes Following on from our ’year of hope’ appeal last month an international team of researchers, including two funded by the MND Association, have identified mutations in the Matrin 3 (MATR3) gene as a cause of the rare inherited form of MND. Medical Research Council (MRC)/ MND Association Lady Edith Wolfson Clinical Research Fellow Dr Pietro…
Reading Time: 4 minutes Background to TDP43 A characteristic sign of motor neurones affected by motor neurone disease is the clumps of protein visible down a microscope. Although these proteins have been observed in motor neurones from people affected by MND since the earliest descriptions in the 1870s, a key discovery was made when the identity of a protein,…
Reading Time: 3 minutes Results from a phase I clinical trial of a drug known as ISIS 333611 have been published open-access online in the scientific journal Lancet Neurology on 29 March 2013. This is the first time researchers have tested the effects of delivering an antisense oligonucleotide directly into the human cerebral spinal fluid (the fluid between the spinal…
Reading Time: 4 minutes New exciting findings announced today provide the first insight into the structure and function of a repeated six letter genetic sequence in an MND gene called C9ORF72. Understanding the function of C9ORF72, and how it could go wrong to cause MND, could assist researchers in the future to identify potential treatments that target the disease.…
Reading Time: < 1 minute At the end of last week, we learnt that the Brain Research Trust (BRT) planned on appealing for donations on BBC Radio 4 for their latest MND research project. The BRT raise money solely for research into neurological diseases (including MND) based at the Institute of Neurology (University College London). When we heard about this…
