Reading Time: 2 minutes As well as helping out with our ‘blog a day’ during MND Awareness Month, we also asked our researchers to get involved in ‘baking’ to become our first ‘MND Researchers Bake off Champion’. We received some great science-themed cakes, from zebrafish biscuits to a Nuclear Magnetic Resonance(NMR) machine cake! Our Director of Research, Dr Brain Dickie said:…
Reading Time: 4 minutes A number of articles were published in various news sources on 11 July 2014, highlighting how scientists in Sheffield are working towards testing a promising treatment for a rare inherited form of MND caused by the SOD1 gene. Here we write about the research and what it means for people living with MND. The Sheffield…
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: < 1 minute Research published yesterday on 3 June 2014 in the prestigious journal Nature Communications, highlights key insights into how the protein TDP-43 may cause motor neurones to die in MND. Association-funded researcher Prof Chris Miller based at the Institute of Psychiatry at King’s College London, was involved in the research. In the majority of cases of MND the protein…
Reading Time: 2 minutes June is MND Awareness Month and this year our campaign is featured around the theme ‘VOICE’. Awareness month is our opportunity to raise awareness of MND, making society better informed about the disease. Here in the Research Development team, we are using our global research voice to raise awareness on our MND Research blog. Our…
Reading Time: 2 minutes A new national survey about depression has just been launched. The MND Association is supporting this new priority setting partnership as we would like to know what questions people living with MND, their families, friends and clinicians have about depression. About this survey ‘Depression: asking the right questions’ is a new survey supported by the MND Association as we feel that…
Reading Time: 4 minutes The top-line results from the Cytokinetics Inc Phase IIb clinical trial of Tirasemtiv were announced last week. Following this announcement, detailed results were then presented on 29 April 2014 at the Annual Academy of Neurology (AAN) meeting. Unfortunately, although the drug was found to be safe, the results concluded that Tirasemtiv did not meet its…
Reading Time: 2 minutes A lot has been happening in terms of research policy at the moment, from the announcement of the European adaptive licensing pilot to the Government’s Early Access to Medicines scheme. The newest addition is the Medical Innovation Bill. But, what does this Bill mean? How is it different to the other initiatives and why are we not supporting…
Reading Time: 4 minutes Dr Jakub Scaber from the University of Oxford is our newest Medical Research Council (MRC)/ MND Association Lady Edith Wolfson Clinical Research Fellow. He is investigating how the newly identified C9orf72 gene causes MND in some individuals using induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cell technology. Researchers funded by the Association were amongst the first to create human…
Reading Time: 4 minutes Last month the UK Government’s Department of Health announced an Early Access to Medicines Scheme. But, what is this new scheme? and what does it mean for people living with MND? The drug trial process The only proven drug to slow progression in MND is riluzole. This is the only drug that has passed all the…
