Reading Time: 3 minutes Project MinE is an international genetics project that is analysing DNA from people with MND in detail. For the majority of people with MND, the disease appears ‘sporadically’ for no apparent reason. For a small number of people, approximately 5-10% of those with MND there is an inherited link, in other words the disease runs in…
Reading Time: 2 minutes Barbara Thuss is project co-ordinator for Project MinE, an international initiative with the aim of sequencing at least 15,000 MND genomes. We announced earlier today that the MND Association is funding the UK-arm of this initiative, known as the Whole Genome Sequencing project. Here Barbara explains more about Project-MinE. Although the precise cause of MND is still…
Reading Time: 6 minutes Each year, MND Associations across the globe mark 21 June as a special day of recognition, acknowledging the impact that MND has on people around the world. MND is a global problem. It does not discriminate, and for every person diagnosed the effects of the disease will be forever felt by their families and friends.…
Reading Time: 3 minutes Dr Samantha Price is the Research Information Co-ordinator at the MND Association. As well as organising the ‘blog a day’ during MND Awareness Month she also communicates the latest news about MND research. Here she blogs about the MND Association’s announcement of the UK Whole Genome Sequencing project. It’s been a brilliant Awareness Month with…
Reading Time: 7 minutes Hi, I’m Heather, a PhD student from King’s College London, and a Communications Ambassador for the 34th International Symposium on ALS/MND which was held in Basel last December. Over 1,300 attendees from around the world gathered to connect with researchers and people affected by MND and engage with the latest research presented in the platform presentation and poster sessions. In this blog post, I will be sharing several of my personal highlights of the symposium, which cover how differences in our genetic code can be explored to understand their effects on MND risk and progression.
Reading Time: 4 minutes Every year at the European Network to Cure ALS (ENCALS) meeting, the Young Investigator award is presented to the brightest and best young scientist in MND research who made significant achievements and have the most promising career in MND research ahead of them. The prestigious award is given for outstanding research, which challenges existing ideas…
Reading Time: 5 minutes “The search for new drugs to help MND patients is a long and challenging one, but it is one where we are beginning to see hope for the future emerging on several fronts. New Artificial Intelligence (AI) data analysis techniques and larger, more detailed collections of patient data have been pivotal in these advances.” Dr…
Reading Time: 5 minutes A recent study has assessed the extent to which genetics plays a role in the development of MND, in both familial and non-familial (sporadic) forms of the disease. This research has arisen as a result of an international collaboration of several research institutes, many of whom have been supported by the MND Association. The world-class…
Reading Time: 9 minutes A paper arising from research carried out at the University of Sheffield as part of the AMBRoSIA biobank, and in collaboration with the international Project MinE gene-hunting consortium, was recently published in the Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry. Researchers propose that a test for the most common MND genes could be offered to all…
Reading Time: 6 minutes Today marks 10 years since the MND Association’s research blog first started, making it our ‘blogiversary’. It officially began with a welcome post from our very own director, Dr Brian Dickie, which talked about the main purpose of the blog – to share what’s going on in the world of MND research and give you…
