Reading Time: 4 minutes My name is Dr Hannah Smith, and I’m a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Edinburgh. My project is supervised by Professor Tom Gillingwater, and my work is funded by MND Scotland. My current research focuses on comparing healthy motor neurons and those with MND/ALS, specifically focusing on early changes to the cellular machinery and how the motor neurons produce the proteins they need to function. I’ll discuss the specifics of that, and why we are interested in finding out this information, in the next section.
Reading Time: 4 minutes My name is Florence and I’m doing a PhD in artificial intelligence (AI) enabled healthcare at University College London. My research is specifically investigating how AI techniques can be used to improve the prediction of how quickly somebody’s disease will progress in motor neurone disease.
Reading Time: 5 minutes Hi there! I’m Dezerae, and I am currently a Lady Edith Wolfson Junior Non-Clinical Research Fellow at the University of Cambridge. My work, supported by
Reading Time: 5 minutes My current work focuses on looking at the cell types that are affected in MND and how they impact each other. Motor neurons, the main cell type affected in MND, connect our brains and muscles. This connection is what allows us to move. In MND, these cells start to die, which is what leads to progressive paralysis. But motor neurons aren’t the only cell types affected by MND. They are surrounded by many more cells called glia, which have roles in keeping our motor neurons healthy.
Reading Time: 5 minutes I’m Hannah, an MND Association-funded first year PhD student at the University of Nottingham. During my undergraduate degree in Biochemistry, also at Nottingham, I had the opportunity to do a project researching MND in the lab, where my interest in MND began. During this project I also met someone who was living with MND, who had come to hear about the research happening in our lab. Hearing his insights into the devastating effects of MND really stuck with me, and I decided I wanted to begin a career in MND research. This led me to my PhD project, in which I am aiming to make a natural type of cell called astrocytes more protective of motor neurones. We hope that this work will inform us of a possible new way to treat MND.
Reading Time: 6 minutes On the 8 September 2023, members of the Research Development team at the MND Association attended the 4th UCL Queen Square Motor Neuron Disease Centre
Reading Time: 3 minutes Jade and Liam are researchers at Sheffield Institute for Translational Neuroscience, University of Sheffield. Liam’s work aims to improve healthcare services through technology by involving
Causes and disease mechanisms Genetic Research Markers of Disease Progression MND Research Models of MND Research we fund Treatments Unproven treatments
A stepping stone to becoming future leaders in MND research
Reading Time: 6 minutes MND is a very complex disease and collaboration within the research community is key to building on our current understanding of the disease biology and
Reading Time: 6 minutes QurAlis, a biotechnology company focused on developing precision medicines for MND and other neurodegenerative diseases, has announced the opening of a clinical trial in the
Reading Time: 3 minutes In June we hosted the second MND EnCouRage UK event for early career researchers (ECRs) which aims to support them to continue working in the