Reading Time: 7 minutes Each year the 11th of February sees the world recognise and celebrate the contributions of women in science. The International day of Women and Girls in science was established by the United Nations to promote gender equality and encourage more women and girls across the world to aim to build a career in science. It…
Reading Time: 6 minutes My name is Stephanie Shepheard, and I am a Research Associate in the Motor Neuron Disease & Neurotrophic Research Laboratory (MND&NR Lab), Flinders Health & Medicine Research Institute in the College of Medicine & Public Health at Flinders University, South Australia. I measure biological changes, or biomarkers, that may tell us something useful about motor…
Reading Time: 6 minutes Guest researcher blog post about the recently published paper on the identification of potential new biomarkers in the blood, in the journal Brain Communications. Written by lead author, Dr Greig Joilin, Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of Sussex: Diagnosis of MND is currently a time-consuming process of elimination, causing patients and families prolonged stress…
Reading Time: 3 minutes Researchers from University College London led by Dr Pietro Fratta and Dr John Thornton found that muscle imaging can help distinguish Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) from Kennedy’s Disease based on the way specific muscle groups deteriorate in each condition. The method can also help assess the severity of the disease. ALS is a rapidly progressing…
Reading Time: 5 minutes Findings from the largest biomarker study of people with Kennedy’s Disease, published in the journal Neurology, found a predictive biomarker to help in differential diagnosis and tracking clinical progression. Led by Dr Pietro Fratta from University College London, the research team highlighted the importance of markers of muscle mass rather than neuronal damage in Kennedy’s…
Reading Time: 3 minutes Researchers from the Flinders University, Australia and University of Miami have discovered a new protein that can act as a biomarker to track disease progression in people with MND. A paper written under the leadership of Dr Shepheard and Dr Rogers was published today in the research journal ‘Neurology’. What is p75 and what do…
Reading Time: < 1 minute MND Association funded researcher Dr Martin Turner at University of Oxford has identified a pattern of degeneration in the brains of people with MND that is linked to the level of disability. This finding brings us closer to identifying a biomarker that can be used to speed up the diagnosis of MND, which can be…
Reading Time: 3 minutes Yesterday’s announcement by the biotechnology company Trophos SA of the lack of effectiveness of their compound olesoxime adds to the long list of drugs that have failed to live up to their early promise in the lab. It’s a story that’s common across the world of neurodegenerative disease, including common conditions such as Parkinson’s disease…
Reading Time: 2 minutes Last weekend 19 neurologists and researchers gathered in a hotel seminar room in The Netherlands to talk about building closer links across Europe. Prof Leonard van den Berg, the current chair of the European ALS Consortium organised the workshop to work out how we can collaborate more effectively across Europe. Prof van den Berg is…
