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Round up of news from the 22nd International Symposium on ALS/MND

Reading Time: 2 minutes We organise the International Symposium on ALS/MND every year, and it is regarded as the premier medical conference on MND and a highlight of the research calendar.  In 2011, the symposium was held in Sydney Australia where 650 researchers, clinicians and healthcare professionals  from 33 countries met to discuss recent advances in MND research and…

Final thoughts from Sydney

Reading Time: < 1 minute Attending a three day scientific meeting is quite an intense experience, my brain has been working hard and by this morning, there were leaks of stress all over the place! So in some ways it was quite a relief to walk into the final session of the meeting this afternoon, but in other ways quite…

Changing fashions of MND models

Reading Time: 3 minutes Models of MND are important both to understand the causes of MND and to quickly, efficiently and accurately screen and develop new treatments for it. A number of key developments both in terms of technological know-how and new understanding of genetics of MND have led to the development of new models discussed at on the…

Clinical trial low down, down under

Reading Time: 3 minutes “After a time where patients and sponsors of trials alike had become disheartened about the lack of positive clinical trials, it is exciting to see so many positives, including the recently approved Neudexta, and the dexpramipexole study”, commented Professor Robert Miller from the Forbes Norris ALS/MDA centre in San Francisco opening the discussions on clinical…

Windows to the brain

Reading Time: 4 minutes With the huge advances in biology, it can seem that areas such as brain scanning are relatively stagnant, but we are starting to see a growing momentum in the field, allowing researchers to learn more about the ‘real time’ events occurring in individuals with MND. Hand in hand with the improving technology that allows us…

The season of the gene

Reading Time: 2 minutes “Welcome to this afternoon’s genetics session, which I hope will convey elements of hope and excitement about the season of the gene” were Professor Teepu Siddique’s (from Northwestern University, USA) opening remarks on a series of talks that really did live up to this standard. To me each talk was like being read chapters of a thriller…

Next chapter of BMAA detective story

Reading Time: 4 minutes On Thursday morning, Profs Paul Cox and Walter Bradley chaired a session titled ‘Beyond Guam: New Aspects of the BMAA Hypothesis’. This was the latest chapter in a detective story, involving botanists, epidemiologists, clinicians and biochemists that goes back 60 years…. Back in the early 1950s, American doctors started documenting a high incidence of a…