MND research project receives welcome boost from charity trust
A cutting-edge research project, which will use Artificial Intelligence (AI) to help make potential therapeutics even safer for people living with motor neurone disease (MND), has received a £165,000 boost from Rosetrees.
Rosetrees, a private charity which offers grants to support medical research projects, is jointly funding a Lady Edith Wolfson Rosetrees Non-Clinical Fellowship alongside the MND Association, which has been awarded to Dr Oscar Wilkins at University College London.
Dr Wilkins’ £330,000 project, called Improving the safety and specificity of the TDP-REG system for MND research and gene therapies, enables treatments to be activated specifically in diseased cells, using AI to help design therapeutics which ‘hack’ disease processes in the cell to activate therapies. This work raises exciting prospects that future treatments for MND can be precisely and explicitly targeted to the motor neurons, greatly reducing the likelihood of damaging side effects in other parts of the brain and body. The project will improve pre-clinical studies and aid the development of safer therapeutics for people living with MND.
A spokesperson for Rosetrees said: “Through our collaboration with the MND Association, we're proud to support this exciting early career fellowship.
“We are committed to investing in early career researchers and providing the support they need to help them transform our understanding and treatment of MND.”
The MND Association’s Chief Scientist, Dr Brian Dickie said: “The Rosetrees charity has a longstanding record of supporting the progress of innovative science from the lab to the clinic. We’re delighted to partner with them on supporting this exciting research, led by an outstanding young researcher.”
For more information about MND and the MND Association please visit www.mndassociation.org