International collaboration and alignment is crucial for advancing MND research. In August 2024, we hosted our inaugural Global MND Research Roundtable in Melbourne, Australia.
The event brings together world-leading neurologists, geneticists and cellular biologists in the MND field with strategic and collaborative leaders, people with lived experience of MND, industry and funders from outside MND. Representing 17 international and 23 national affiliations, attendees have an array of experience in the MND sector and beyond. This includes:
- pre-clinical and clinical researchers in MND
- global collaborative leaders from other fields
- life science
- strategic investment
- ALS/MND organisations
- people with lived experience of ALS/MND.
Global MND Roundtable Highlights, August 2024, Melbourne
Attendees will talk about the barriers stopping research from becoming treatments, and a cure, for MND. These themes were determined based on feedback received from the global MND research community. The roundtable themes are:
- Disease heterogeneity. Understanding the variability and genetics in a person’s disease.
- Disease fundamentals and drug targets. Understanding the fundamentals of the disease to develop drugs to target MND.
- Patient stratification and classification. Ways to help guide patients to the right clinical trials.
- Biomarkers. To develop a diagnostic test, as there isn’t one, and a way to measure how a disease is progressing.
- Global collaboration. Ways for researchers around the world to collaborate on projects focusing on MND.
An outcomes-focused event, Roundtable attendees will discuss and develop activities aimed at addressing the barriers. This may include the establishment of a working group and the collaboration on publications and funding proposals.