Reading Time: 4 minutes MND Association and Alzheimer’s Research UK-funded researchers from University College London have identified that toxic proteins may cause motor neurones to die in C9orf72 MND and frontotemporal dementia. Published open access in the journal Science on Thursday 7 August, this research explains more about one of the most common forms of inherited MND.
Reading Time: 3 minutes Dr Samantha Price is the Research Information Co-ordinator at the MND Association. As well as organising the ‘blog a day’ during MND Awareness Month she also communicates the latest news about MND research. Here she blogs about the MND Association’s announcement of the UK Whole Genome Sequencing project. It’s been a brilliant Awareness Month with…
Reading Time: < 1 minute Research published yesterday on 3 June 2014 in the prestigious journal Nature Communications, highlights key insights into how the protein TDP-43 may cause motor neurones to die in MND. Association-funded researcher Prof Chris Miller based at the Institute of Psychiatry at King’s College London, was involved in the research. In the majority of cases of MND the protein…
Reading Time: 3 minutes Following on from physics and X-rays; Matt Gabel is an MND Association PhD student at the Brighton and Sussex Medical School who is using mathematics to study MND. Here Matt blogs about his day and what it’s like being a PhD student. I’ve just finished my weekly meeting with my supervisors, and I’m walking back over…
Reading Time: 4 minutes Dr Gareth Wright, based at the University of Liverpool, is a postdoctoral researcher funded by the MND Association. His research is all about using physics and x-rays to further our understanding of MND. Here he gives us a taste of why X-rays are important. The background to X-rays We have a long history of X-ray science…
Reading Time: 2 minutes Following on from baking, and understanding the roles of genes and proteins, Helena Chaytow (Royal Holloway) explains about her research. Helena is an MND Association-funded PhD student developing small strands of DNA, known as ‘antisense oligonucleotides’ to make motor neurones more resistant to damage. DNA and RNA The challenge of working with Motor Neuron Disease (MND)…
Reading Time: 2 minutes June is MND Awareness Month and this year our campaign is featured around the theme ‘VOICE’. Awareness month is our opportunity to raise awareness of MND, making society better informed about the disease. Here in the Research Development team, we are using our global research voice to raise awareness on our MND Research blog. Our…
Reading Time: 4 minutes The top-line results from the Cytokinetics Inc Phase IIb clinical trial of Tirasemtiv were announced last week. Following this announcement, detailed results were then presented on 29 April 2014 at the Annual Academy of Neurology (AAN) meeting. Unfortunately, although the drug was found to be safe, the results concluded that Tirasemtiv did not meet its…
Reading Time: 3 minutes Prof Vladimir Buchman (Cardiff University)’s research was selected as one of the best research studies, as decided by the journal editors, published in the Journal of Biological Chemistry in 2013. He is building on this research in his Association-funded project, which began on 1 April 2014. The background to FUS: In 2009 an international team…
Reading Time: 3 minutes The MND Association has funded a number of research projects in the laboratory of Dr Frank Hirth at the Institute of Psychiatry, King’s College London. His area of expertise is in using fruit flies to understand how motor neurones die in MND. There is an opportunity to read a summary of some of his work…
