stem cells Archives

Growing brain cells in 3D to study MND

5 October 20235 October 2023Research Development Team1 Comment

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.

Driving research forward – £1 million awarded to research into cutting-edge therapies for MND

24 January 202327 January 2023Research Development Team

Reading Time: 4 minutes In 2021, the MND Association, the My Name’5 Doddie Foundation and medical research charity LifeArc established a joint fund – the Motor Neuron Disease Translational Fund – to support translational research in motor neurone disease. In January 2023, £1 million was awarded to researchers at University College London (UCL) to progress two promising new therapies,…

Clinical Trials (Part 1) – Platform Presentations: Highlights from Perth

19 December 20199 July 2020Riddhi Naik3 Comments

Reading Time: 4 minutes This blog is part of the ‘Highlights from Perth’ collection of articles, where you can read about the content of some of the talks and posters presented at the 30th International Symposium on ALS/MND. All presentations have a code beginning with ‘C’ followed by a number (e.g. C50). This will help you locate the specific…

Work Experience with the Research Development team

21 February 201810 July 2020Research Development Team2 Comments

Reading Time: 3 minutes My name is Kiera Belson and I have just completed three days of work experience at the Motor Neurone Disease (MND) Association for an award called the Youth STEMM Award. This consists of doing different activities and experiences linked to the different STEMM sectors: Science, Technology, Engineering, Maths and Medicine. The work I have done…

11th Lady Edith Wolfson Clinical Fellowship awarded

24 July 20175 May 2022Research Development Team6 Comments

Reading Time: 2 minutes We are delighted to announce that Dr Arpan Mehta has been appointed as our latest Lady Edith Wolfson Fellow, jointly funded by the MND Association and Medical Research Council. This clinical research training fellowship will help to launch his career as an aspiring academic neurologist, providing comprehensive training in cellular, molecular and bioinformatics technologies in…

Shining a light on our non-clinical fellow: Using blue light to control muscle movement

20 July 20175 May 2022Martina Slapkova1 Comment

Reading Time: 4 minutes The MND Association is proud to support the brightest minds of MND research. Outside of general healthcare and biomedical project grants that are usually awarded to senior researchers, we also offer opportunities to young researchers – these take the form of PhD studentships and fellowships. Fellowships are awarded to post-doctoral researchers who are able to…

Life of an MND researcher – part 2: PhD edition

26 June 20175 May 2022Martina Slapkova

Reading Time: 4 minutes Each year, the MND Association dedicates the month of June to raising MND awareness. This year, we focus on the eyes – in most people with MND the only part of their body they can still move and the only way left for them to communicate. Alongside the Association-wide campaign, the Research Development team selected…

Stem cells and MND

6 June 20175 May 2022Belinda Cupid2 Comments

What goes wrong with electrical signalling in MND?

21 April 201720 April 2022Lucy Parkinson5 Comments

Reading Time: 2 minutes Last year, we introduced a PhD Studentship that we are funding at the University of St Andrews. Under the supervision of Dr Gareth Miles and Prof Siddharthan Chandran, the student working on this project, Amit Chouhan, is investigating why electrical signalling goes wrong in MND. As the project enters its second year, Amit and the…

Using stem cell technology to understand more about how MND and FTD develop

26 October 201629 April 2022Lucy Parkinson4 Comments

Reading Time: 3 minutes The MND Association are funding Prof Kevin Talbot, Dr Ruxandra Dafinca (née Mutihac) and colleagues at the University of Oxford, who are investigating the link between the C9orf72 and TDP-43 genes in MND. We wrote about this research earlier in the year. As we’ve recently received their first year progress report we wanted to give…