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 finding effective treatments. The MND Association recognises the importance of expanding the dedicated MND research workforce, as well as supporting those who are already working in the field. To fund…
Reading Time: 5 minutes ALS is the most common form of MND and these terms are used interchangeably in this blog. MND is a complex disease, with many potential environmental and genetic factors that could lead to its development. Because of these underlying genetic causes, one promising option for treatment is gene therapy. Gene therapies target mistakes within the…
Reading Time: 5 minutes This is blog number two in our ‘Symposium Blogathon’ – counting down to the 32nd International Symposium on ALS/MND. Numbers in bold green text correspond to the code in the abstract book. Click on the number to be redirected to the full abstract (the page may take a minute to load). Approximately 10% of people…
Reading Time: 5 minutes A recent study has assessed the extent to which genetics plays a role in the development of MND, in both familial and non-familial (sporadic) forms of the disease. This research has arisen as a result of an international collaboration of several research institutes, many of whom have been supported by the MND Association. The world-class…
Reading Time: 4 minutes After its successful premiere in 2017, the University of Oxford organised another meeting of people affected by inherited MND, called ‘Families for the Treatment of Hereditary MND (FaTHoM)’. This turned out to be yet another excellent day where MND clinicians-researchers presented on topics such as genetics of MND, genetic testing and gene therapies. Below you…
Reading Time: 3 minutes MND Association-supported clinical fellow Dr Johnathan Cooper-Knock, and a PhD student Tobias Moll, report mutations in a new MND gene which has uncovered a previously unknown disease mechanism. The new MND causing gene holds instructions for a class of proteins, called glycosyltransferase (GLT8D1), which has not previously been associated with neurodegeneration. During the experiments, published…
Reading Time: 3 minutes Love them or loath them, the band Steps’ first single ‘5,6,7,8’ was a techno line dance song released in 1998 from their debut album ‘step one’, with the B side ‘words of wisdom’. Using this forced and purely tenuous link and an equally awkward segue, I would like to share with you the news that…
Reading Time: 4 minutes This article was written by our Senior Clinical Fellow Prof Martin Turner, a Consultant Neurologist at John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford. “Will it affect my children?” This is one of the questions most commonly asked by people diagnosed with MND. The 20th century answer was a simple “no”, or at least “very unlikely”. With recent scientific…
Reading Time: 2 minutes Scientists from the University of Oxford have set up ‘Families for the Treatment of Hereditary MND’ (FaTHoM), an initiative to bring together the community of families affected by inherited forms of MND. Their first meeting will take place in Oxford on Tuesday 18th April. Most people living with MND cannot identify a relative who has…
Reading Time: 2 minutes Two sets of MND genetic results were published yesterday. One of these results was about the importance of a new gene called NEK1. The second highlighted the role of gene C21orf2 in MND – we wrote an article about this yesterday. Both sets of results were published in the prestigious journal Nature Genetics. What are…
