Reading Time: 5 minutes This blog is part of the ‘Highlights from Perth’ collection of articles, where you can read about the content of some of the talks and posters presented at the 30th International Symposium on ALS/MND in Perth. With this years International Symposium on ALS/MND now behind us, it is time to reflect on some of the…
Reading Time: 4 minutes Last week saw the culmination of 12-months of planning as the 30th International Symposium on ALS/MND took place in Perth, Australia. The Symposium brings together the brightest minds from the MND research and healthcare communities. With 100 oral presentations, and over 420 posters, the Symposium is an opportunity for around 1,000 researchers and healthcare professionals…
Reading Time: 4 minutes This week sees the start of the 30th International Symposium on ALS/MND in Perth, Australia. The Symposium brings together the brightest minds from the MND research and healthcare communities. With 110 oral presentations, and over 420 posters, the Symposium is an opportunity for around 1,000 researchers and healthcare professionals to share new understanding of the…
Reading Time: 5 minutes There are literally thousands of websites on the internet that make claims about amazing alternative or off-label treatments (AOTs) and even cures for MND but with little or no scientific evidence to back these claims up. This presents a real problem for people living with the disease who may want to try them. Are they…
Reading Time: 2 minutes MND Engage was a one-day collaborative event, bringing together MND researchers and people affected by MND. The inaugural event was held at the Francis Crick Institute in London on 23 July. The event, organised by researchers Jasmine Harley, Giulia Tyzack and Helen Divine, and supported by the MND Association’s Research Development and Communications teams, brought…
Reading Time: 3 minutes Dr Arpan Mehta, one of our Lady Edith Wolfson Clinical Fellows, and his team at the Euan MacDonald Centre at the University of Edinburgh have recently carried out a systematic review and meta-analysis of the pre-clinical literature (studies using animal models) to assess the therapeutic potential of targeting mitochondrial dysfunction in MND, examining if these…
Reading Time: 6 minutes ‘From antibiotics and insulin to blood transfusions and treatments for cancer or HIV, virtually every medical achievement in the past century has depended directly or indirectly on research using animals’ – from the Royal Society’s position statement on the use of animals in research. We know that talking about using animals in research is an…
Reading Time: 7 minutes Is it possible that a drug that treats congestive heart failure could improve respiration in people with MND? Or that a drug used to treat cancer could reduce motor neuron inflammation and possibly slow progression of the disease? In this blog we take a look at drug repurposing – using a drug developed to treat…
Reading Time: 7 minutes In November 2018 the Home Office released a draft Guideline scope for Cannabis-based products for medicinal use in which they announced that specialist doctors (like consultant neurologists) on the Special Register of the General Medical Council will be able to prescribe cannabis-based medicinal products to some patients. Before this, the only cannabis-based medicines licensed for…
Reading Time: 2 minutes The research team frequently gets asked about the effectiveness of alternative therapies and their use as treatments for MND. Here we report on a recent paper that looked at the effects of ashwagandha, or Indian ginseng, in a SOD1 mouse model of MND. For around 3000 years Withania somnifera (WS), commonly known as ashwagandha or Indian ginseng,…
