Reading Time: 2 minutes Today is world Rare Disease Day, so it’s an appropriate time to raise awareness of ALL rare diseases, including motor neurone disease. There are between 6,000 and 8,000 rare diseases, but what makes a ‘rare disease’? A rare disease is defined by the European Union as one that affects less than 5 in 10,000 of…
Reading Time: 4 minutes Today’s announcement of the difference the ALS / MND ice bucket challenge has made included a number of areas of research investment. You’ll be hearing much more about these as our plans develop, but here are three examples to give you a flavour of things to come.
Reading Time: 3 minutes In a fitting start to a new year, the results of the Palliative and End of Life Care Priority Setting Partnership top 10 priorities for research were released today. The topics range from: the best way to get out of hours palliative care, how to provide palliative care for everyone irrespective of where they live…
Reading Time: 3 minutes A few days before Christmas, I hope that you’ll forgive the obvious pun. Rather than the small green vegetable that you either love or hate, here I’m talking sprouts of new shoots of talent shown by the winners of the poster prizes. They were chosen from over 300 poster presentations at the International Symposium on…
Reading Time: 2 minutes I think Brian Dickie must have planned the early morning slot of the International Symposium in Brussels as a talk that would make delegates sit up and take note. Southampton based Professor Hugh Perry’s presentation certainly made me do that on Sunday morning, the last day of the meeting. His presentation was on the role…
Reading Time: 3 minutes The opening presentation of this morning’s session of the International Symposium on ALS/MND set the tone for the rest of the day – almost literally, it was as if there was a neon light outside the lecture theatre saying ‘exciting science being presented here’. Stem cells to study electrical activity of neurones
Reading Time: 2 minutes Over the summer I travelled over the Healy mountain Pass in Ireland – my memory of the drive is lots of hairpin bends. Fast forward six months and I’m reminded of those bends at the first day of the International Symposium – this time we’re talking about hairpins in RNA rather than roads!
Reading Time: < 1 minute After seeing the works of art on the wall – I wonder if the people in the picture will be inspired to buy a poster in the shop on the way home. Posters come in all shapes and sizes from B&W Athena posters, to Hello Kitty. In Brussels the posters are still works of art,…
Reading Time: 3 minutes This autumn sees an exciting new development in the MND Association’s DNA Bank. Researchers can now use the samples within it to understand why motor neurones die as well as what the triggers are for MND. How the DNA Bank began Beginning in 2003 and running until 2012, approximately 1,500 people with MND, 1,000 healthy…
Reading Time: 4 minutes Queen’s Square in London, a green and calm space tucked behind the busy Russell Square, is known for the famous National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery. One of the MND Association’s Care Centres is based at the National – providing important multidisciplinary team care for people with MND. However, in a concrete tower block, tucked in the corner…
