Reading Time: 5 minutes “The search for new drugs to help MND patients is a long and challenging one, but it is one where we are beginning to see hope for the future emerging on several fronts. New Artificial Intelligence (AI) data analysis techniques and larger, more detailed collections of patient data have been pivotal in these advances.” Dr…
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 Due to the collaboration, hard work and partnerships with people affected by motor neurone disease (MND) who generously take part in research, new pieces of the complex MND puzzle continue to be found. These pieces can come in many forms and one such type of discovery is of the genes that cause MND – in…
Reading Time: 2 minutes Induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) technology has enabled researchers to create and study living human motor neurones in the lab, derived originally from patient skin cells. This project (our reference 80-970-797) is a collaboration between the labs of Professors Chris Shaw and Jack Price at King’s College in London and Siddharthan Chandran in Edinburgh. It…
Reading Time: 2 minutes Huge congratulations to Professor Ammar Al-Chalabi for winning the prestigious Sheila Essey Award at the American Academy of Neurology (AAN) research conference taking place in Vancouver, Canada. Professor Al-Chalabi is an MND Association funded researcher and Professor of Neurology and Complex Disease Genetics at King’s College London. He is also the Director of our MND Care and Research…
Reading Time: 3 minutes Project MinE is an international genetics project that is analysing DNA from people with MND in detail. For the majority of people with MND, the disease appears ‘sporadically’ for no apparent reason. For a small number of people, approximately 5-10% of those with MND there is an inherited link, in other words the disease runs in…
Reading Time: 4 minutes Today’s announcement of the difference the ALS / MND ice bucket challenge has made included a number of areas of research investment. You’ll be hearing much more about these as our plans develop, but here are three examples to give you a flavour of things to come.
Reading Time: 3 minutes “On the seventh day of Christmas MND research gives to you… our SEVEN research strategy themes” It’s New Year’s eve, a time to look back and celebrate on 2014 and our MND research achievements. It’s also a time to look to the future; in 2015 we will be funding new MND research in line with…
Reading Time: 3 minutes This autumn sees an exciting new development in the MND Association’s DNA Bank. Researchers can now use the samples within it to understand why motor neurones die as well as what the triggers are for MND. How the DNA Bank began Beginning in 2003 and running until 2012, approximately 1,500 people with MND, 1,000 healthy…
Reading Time: 3 minutes The ALS #icebucketchallenge, which started in America, has now well and truly hit the UK! The social media craze has seen thousands of people getting involved in raising awareness of ‘ALS’( the most common form of MND), and funds for the Association, by placing a bucket of ice-cold water over their heads. But what happens…
