Reading Time: 7 minutesEach year we invite plenary speakers who are experts in their fields to provide an overview on topics across MND research and clinical practice. This year we have 14 plenary speakers talking about ALS/MND who will discuss a wide range of topics from genetics to tissue biomarkers to improving clinical practice. In this second blog we will be taking a closer look at some of our plenary speakers this year and sharing more about the topics they will be discussing.
34th Symposium: Basel Causes and disease mechanisms Events Genetic Research Healthcare Markers of Disease Progression MND Research Models of MND Symposium
Symposium Preview: Meet the ALS/MND Plenary Speakers…Part 1
Reading Time: 7 minutesAs the research team count down to this year’s International Symposium on ALS/MND, we will be posting blogs throughout November to give you a snapshot
Reading Time: 4 minutesMy 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 minutesMy 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 minutesHi 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 minutesMy 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 minutesI’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 minutesOn 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 minutesJade 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 minutesMND is a very complex disease and collaboration within the research community is key to building on our current understanding of the disease biology and