Reading Time: 7 minutes Clinical trials are vital in the hunt for effective treatments of motor neurone disease. They provide the evidence needed to determine whether a drug is safe and effective. In trials, participants are randomly assigned to receive either the treatment or a dummy drug, also known as a placebo. While this group is crucially important in…
Reading Time: 5 minutes Hi everyone! My name’s Katie and I recently joined the Association as a Supporter Information Officer. My role offers me a unique perspective as I am in both the Research Team and the Development Team, which is part of Fundraising. Alongside our brilliant Research Team, I will be writing for the MND Research Blog on…
Reading Time: 5 minutes The MND clinical trial landscape has grown vastly over the last decade and this has led to increased opportunities for people with MND to take part in research across the globe. Behind these trials, sit a large number of highly dedicated staff at each trial site who make sure the trial is set-up, recruiting and…
Reading Time: 6 minutes To fight motor neurone disease, we need a steady stream of enthusiastic and passionate scientists who can bring new ideas and push boundaries. Often, we talk of MND research as a puzzle, with each new piece of research adding to the bigger picture. The scientists just beginning their careers, known as early career researchers, could…
Reading Time: 6 minutes Every year the Patient Fellows Symposium Programme helps people living with MND, from all over the world, to participate in the International Symposium on ALS/MND. The is the largest annual gathering of MND researchers and healthcare professionals dedicated to MND research in the global calendar. Attending provides, those who the research will benefit, an opportunity to have a firsthand view of the most recent and promising research being undertaken by researchers across the world.
Reading Time: 6 minutes MND is a very complex disease, and in the UK there is still only one approved treatment so the need for more effective treatments remains at the forefront of MND research. There have been over 140 clinical trials for MND over the last several decades and the majority of these have, unfortunately, not led to…
Reading Time: 5 minutes The current pace of clinical trials means that there are now more trials testing potential drugs for MND in the UK than ever before. One of these trials is MND-SMART which is designed to run for several years and give more people with the disease a chance to take part in a trial. The MND…
Reading Time: 6 minutes MND is a complex disease, and the causes are still not fully understood. Researchers all around the world are working tirelessly on different theories to try to understand more about what causes MND and how to treat it. One theory is that MND is caused by the activation of ancient viruses which are hidden within…
Reading Time: 3 minutes Introduction A genetic change in the C9orf72 gene is the most common genetic cause of motor neurone disease (MND), accounting for 40%-50% of people with familial MND and 5%-10% of people with sporadic MND. This genetic change in C9orf72 can also lead to behavioural symptoms of frontotemporal dementia (FTD), in some people with MND (around…
Reading Time: 5 minutes The pace of MND research continues to increase, with more clinical trials underway in the UK, over the last year, than ever before. Adding to this momentum, the clinical platform trial MAGNET (Multi-arm, Adaptive, Group-sequential trial NETwork)has just opened to recruitment in the UK.
Over the last several decades, there have been over 140 clinical trials for MND and unfortunately most of these have not led to effective treatments. More recently, clinical trial design has become more innovative, including the use of platform trials. MAGNET is a platform trial which aims to accelerate the development of new potential treatments for MND by testing multiple drugs simultaneously.
