Reading Time: 7 minutesMND affect cells in the brain and spinal cord, including motor neurons, which connect the brain to the muscles. This makes it challenging to study the disease in people with MND, because researchers cannot take biopsies of cells from brains or spinal cords in the same way that can be done for some other diseases. Therefore, researchers must find other ways of studying MND, such as using cell models in the lab to help to understand disease biology at a microscopic level.