Researching why MND impacts people in unique ways

Motor neurone disease (MND) presents a unique puzzle for researchers, with its many forms and unknown causes creating significant challenges. These complexities can lead to roadblocks that slow down progress in drug development and clinical trials. However, IMProving and ACcelerating Translation (IMPACT) projects are working to break through these barriers and speed up the process of finding effective treatments. 

The goal of IMPACT projects is to address the obstacles in developing and testing drugs for MND by accelerating the translation of research into real-world therapies. This involves improving drug design, identifying the genes responsible for the disease, and gaining a deeper understanding of how MND manifests differently in individuals. IMPACT also focuses on creating more accurate lab models and developing diagnostic markers to enhance MND research and treatment. 

At the forefront of this groundbreaking research is Associate Professor Shyuan Ngo, a Group Leader at The University of Queensland’s Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology. With a strong track record in translational research, disease modelling, and biomarker development, Dr. Ngo is a leader in the MND field. 

In 2024, Associate Professor Ngo received two grants from FightMND totalling nearly $1.3 million. Once of these projects is an IMPACT project helping to understand why MND presents differently in people.  

Below Associate Professor Ngo tells FightMND more about her IMPACT project and why it is important for future research into MND.  

What is your project about? 

In MND/ALS, we don’t yet know what triggers the disease or how it progresses in the brain. This project will use brain samples from both ALS mice and people living with ALS, ALS-related dementia (ALS-FTD), or frontotemporal dementia (FTD) to create detailed gene maps. These maps will help us understand how changes in brain cells happen over time and contribute to the development of the disease. 

What do you hope to achieve with your project? 

Our goal is to compare the gene maps we create from brain tissue with those we’ve already made from spinal cord tissue. By combining these maps, we hope to identify key pathways that we can target—and the right time to target them—to prevent motor neurons from dying prematurely in ALS / MND. 

What is new about your project/trial? How has this new development come about?   

We have previously generated gene maps to study what drives the death of nerve cells in the spinal cord. But we still do not know whether this happens before or after the death of nerve cells in the brain.  

This project will generate the first combined gene maps of the brain and spine to help us understand the sequence of events that drive disease progression in ALS / MND. 

How does this project contribute to the Australian and international research community? 

As part of this project, we will create an interactive web tool that the Australian and international research community can use to explore our gene maps of the brain and spinal cord for their own interest and for the generation of new research questions.  

What is the significance of FightMND’s investment in helping you progress your project/trial to the next stage?  

FightMND’s investment into this project is important because the information that we generate from this project will help us to then identify what we need to target, and when we need to target them to prevent to nerve cells from dying.   

In your opinion, why is it important for Australians to continue to donate to FightMND?   

Continued donations to FightMND allows them to support important research that will help us to find ways to halt or cure the disease. 

Creating hope through investing in research 

Associate Professor Ngo’s research is just one of 25 Cure research projects receiving funding in 2024. This funding takes FightMND’s total investment into Cure research to $100.67 million since 2014. 

Funding this research is important to increase our chances of a breakthrough, but it is a lengthy and costly process.  

FightMND’s commitment to finding a cure is built on four key pillars: 

• Funding world class research: We invest in top-tier research through a rigorous and competitive grants program aligning with the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) grants process.   
• Capacity building: We enhance the capacity and capability of the MND research workforce through scholarships and fellowships.  
• Infrastructure: We make targeted investments in critical infrastructure that supports MND research in Australia.  
• Knowledge exchange: We facilitate the sharing of knowledge across the national and international MND community.  

These investments ensure that MND research in Australia remains competitive and world-leading, driving us closer to better treatments and a cure for MND. You can learn more about our investment in research on our Cure investment page.  

Curious to see the impact of your support in 2024? Check out our 2024 Cure and Care Investment Booklet to learn more about the cutting-edge projects we’re backing this year. 

Together, we can defeat the Beast that is MND.