Over $3 million in grants for MS research

MS Australia has awarded over $3 million in grants to 22 new projects focused on multiple sclerosis (MS) research, providing a major boost in the fight against this increasing and accelerating disease.

MS is the most commonly acquired chronic neurological disease affecting young adults and affects three times more women than men. It occurs when the body’s own immune system mistakenly attacks and damages the fatty material around the nerves known as myelin, which is important for protecting and insulating nerves so that electrical messages from the brain can be sent to the rest of the body quickly and efficiently.

Alarmingly, a recent report discovered that MS is rising at an accelerating rate in Australia, with the number of people diagnosed from 2017 to 2021 increasing sharply by 30% (25,600 to 33,335). The exact cause for the increase in MS is not fully understood and there is currently no cure.

“MS is extraordinarily complex, and we need to cover much ground to advance our understanding of the disease and to devise better approaches to combat it,” said MS Australia CEO Rohan Greenland. The grants will thus ensure that an extensive range of research avenues are explored in the pursuit of improving the quality of life for people living with MS, through everything from one-year innovative studies to major three-year projects, fellowships and scholarships.

Several of the research projects will focus on repairing and regenerating the cells damaged by MS, which could lead to a cure. One of these studies will be undertaken by Associate Professor Jennifer Rodger, from The University of Western Australia and the Perron Institute.

Rodger will use a rapidly changing magnetic field — known as repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) — to generate small electrical pulses in the brain to explore if this can improve the survival of myelin-producing cells (oligodendrocytes) in the brain. If successful, the project would allow for treatments that will maximise the survival of oligodendrocytes to rescue brain function in people with MS.

Dr Nicholas Blackburn, from the Menzies Institute for Medical Research at the University of Tasmania, will meanwhile identify potential MS-associated genes by studying families where multiple members have MS. Blackburn will look for changes in genes that may lead to the disease by comparing the genes of family members with MS to those who do not have MS. After finding these genetic changes, researchers will identify how they contribute to MS development.

Alice Saul, also from the Menzies Institute, will be focusing on the role of pain in MS. Her project will seek to improve our understanding of the type of pain associated with MS to develop advice on pain management and to design treatment intervention studies for specific types of pain.

Another treatment-based project comes from Olivia Wills, from the University of Wollongong. She aims to advance our understanding of how diet can impact MS disease progression, management and brain health, which may lead to targeted nutrition approaches for people living with MS.

MS Australia President Associate Professor Desmond Graham congratulated the successful research teams, saying, “The projects and researchers funded are of the highest quality and have the most significant potential to make a difference for people living with MS.”

The full details of all new research projects funded in 2023 can be found here.

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