Our Institute is up and running!

The first Board meeting of the new UK MND Research Institute took place last month (March 2023) and reported on progress. The scientists, who are part of the Institute, have been very busy submitting applications for the £50m funding that has been ring-fenced by the Government for MND. This is all going well and over 20 Universities and centres are now part of this pioneering collaboration.

Most importantly, the scientific work of the Institute is already well underway.  There are multiple work streams, addressing every step of the drug development process.

All of this aims to accelerate the search for treatments, as well as ensure much improved access to clinical trials for more patients.

Underpinning these work streams will be:

• Coordinated lab work across multiple universities
• An innovative new data analysis infrastructure
• Learning from every patient in every trial
• Recruitment and training of new researchers
• Development of new biomarkers to speed up testing of new treatments
• Learning from other diseases and collaborating internationally

Collaboration on this scale is unprecedented, with many elements of the Institute’s approach and work truly groundbreaking.  As the Institute establishes itself, regular updates will be provided to the MND community, with opportunities to get involved.

Our next update will be on one of the exciting projects now in design for ‘screening drugs with promise’ that is unique, globally. Watch this space!