Reading Time: 4 minutes Diagnosing disease faster, accurately predicting disease progression, assessing the ability of a new drug to reach its target – I think we’d all agree that these three things are essential requirements for treating all diseases. But how can we achieve this? The answer may lie in biomarkers. In his plenary talk at last year’s International…
Reading Time: 4 minutes This is blog number 15 in our ‘Symposium Blogathon’ – counting down to the 32nd International Symposium on ALS/MND. Numbers in bold green type correspond to the code in the abstract book. Click on the number to be redirected to the full abstract (the page may take a minute to load). There is currently no…
Reading Time: 6 minutes Guest researcher blog post about the recently published paper on the identification of potential new biomarkers in the blood, in the journal Brain Communications. Written by lead author, Dr Greig Joilin, Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of Sussex: Diagnosis of MND is currently a time-consuming process of elimination, causing patients and families prolonged stress…
Reading Time: 3 minutes This blog is part of the ‘Highlights from Glasgow’ collection of articles, where you can read about the content of some of the talks and posters presented at the 29th International Symposium on ALS/MND. Around the globe, teams are working to find tissue biomarkers for MND and there some promising candidates coming through, some of…
Reading Time: 2 minutes Biomarkers in Oxford (BioMOx) is a research project with the aim of identifying a diagnostic biomarker for MND, which could be used to track the progression of this condition. What are biomarkers? The aim is to identify biomarkers, or ‘biological fingerprints’ for MND. This could be through testing blood and spinal fluid (CSF) samples from…
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: 3 minutes Yesterday’s announcement by the biotechnology company Trophos SA of the lack of effectiveness of their compound olesoxime adds to the long list of drugs that have failed to live up to their early promise in the lab. It’s a story that’s common across the world of neurodegenerative disease, including common conditions such as Parkinson’s disease…
Reading Time: 7 minutes Weight loss is a problem for many people living with MND, with approximately 20% of people already having lost 10% of their weight at diagnosis. Some of this weight loss may be due to a person experiencing difficulties with chewing and swallowing because of increased muscle weakness. It could be due to a lack of…
Reading Time: 4 minutes I’m Hannah, a PhD student from the University of Nottingham, and a Communications Ambassador for the 34th International Symposium on ALS/MND that took place in December 2023. In this blog post I will be sharing the key messages of a talk at the symposium by Dr Sandra Banack. Dr Banack is a Senior Scientist at…
Reading Time: 5 minutes Hi, my name is Avril Mc Tague. I am undertaking a Ph.D. at Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland as part of the Multidisciplinary Innovation and Research Advancing Neurological care in a Digital Age (MIRANDA) doctoral award programme. This is funded by the Health Research Board in Ireland. I was one of five symposium communication ambassadors at last year’s international symposium.
