Every year, the 21st June marks a special day within the MND community. Global MND Awareness Day brings together MND Charities and Associations across the world as we acknowledge the impact that MND has on everyone who is living with and affected by the disease. This year, as an Association we are sharing hidden realities of living with the disease and we’re adding a research twist to this on the blog and MND research X account.
We would like to celebrate the dedication and commitment of MND researchers across the globe who are working tirelessly to add pieces to the MND puzzle. The Association are currently supporting around 320 researchers working on a huge range of projects from improving care and support to understanding more about the disease and searching for more effective treatments. We know that MND is such a complex disease to research and we wanted to highlight some of the hidden challenges that researchers face and how they work to overcome them to push research forwards.
We chatted to two of our early career researchers to find out more about some of the challenges they experience, how they overcome them and what drives them to keep researching MND.
Sarah Gornall, University of Sussex and University of Sheffield
What is a challenge that you face in MND research?
A challenge I face in research is that I often get caught up in the small details and struggle to imagine where the data could be taking me, meaning that I can get lost in tangents and feel like I am never hitting my goal.
How do you overcome this?
To overcome this I will discuss my work with my colleagues, which can remind me of how much is going on and that any progress is good progress! MND research is such a supportive community and by pitching in together we can support the overall aims of our work that much better.
What motivates you to continue your research despite the challenges?
I am always motivated to continue my work by remembering that at the end of the day there are real people that we are supporting and impacting, even from behind the lab bench. It can often feel very distant, but each small piece of the puzzle has a chance of revealing a much bigger picture.
Dr Eleni Christoforidou, University of Sussex
Dr Eleni Christoforidou is a post-doctoral research fellow who is funded by the Association. She is working with Professor Majid Hafezparast to search for new biomarkers for MND which could help to diagnose and track progression of the disease. You can find out more about Eleni’s research on our website or in her guest blog.
What is a challenge that you face in MND research?
One of the biggest challenges in MND research is time. MND moves much faster than we would like and yet research often feels slow. Discovering what causes the disease, finding ways to treat it, and testing those treatments safely takes years. For the people living with MND, that is time they do not have.
How do you overcome this?
As a researcher, I focus on small wins that build toward bigger breakthroughs. That might mean refining a lab model so we can better understand what is going wrong in the nerve cells, or teaming up with other scientists to share data and speed up discoveries. MND research is a team effort. We lean on each other’s strengths, and that helps us move faster.
What motivates you to continue your research despite the challenges?
Every person diagnosed with MND, and every family that is affected, is a reminder of why this work matters. Their courage, their stories, and their hope push us to keep going. Even on the hardest days, I know that the work we are doing is part of something bigger. We are not just studying a disease; we are fighting for futures.
We would like to thank Sarah and Eleni for taking the time to share their research challenges with us. We would also like to thank The Broad Appeal for supporting Sarah’s PhD studentship.
