Research News

DRUG DEVELOPMENT AND CLINICAL TRIAL DESIGN SESSION 8:30am Dr Lucie Bruijn – Opportunities and Advances in Drug Development for ALS Rate of progress in recent years is very exciting. Explore therapeutics approaches as any one could make a big impact on ALS – small molecules, antisense therapy, and biologics (stem […] READ MORE

The team from MND New Zealand are at the inaugural Australasian MND Symposium hosted by Fight MND. We will be bringing you live updates over the next three days – mostly from the biomedical stream, which covers the latest in MND research. Our support team members are attending the clinical […] READ MORE

With the increasing interest in medicinal cannabis for pain management and with the Misuse of Drugs (Medicinal Cannabis) Amendment Bill in Parliament at Select Committee, MND New Zealand wanted to be in a position to contribute to informed debate around the use of medicinal cannabis for management of the symptoms […] READ MORE

We are thrilled to announce that the website of the New Zealand MND Research Network (www.mndresearch.auckland.ac.nz) launched on November 1st 2017. The Research Network website’s purpose is to provide a central location informing others of all MND-related research in New Zealand. It profiles six research groups currently doing work that […] READ MORE

The New Zealand Motor Neurone Disease Registry was launched on on Monday 22 May 2017, just eight months after 4000 participants in 14 fundraising walks all over New Zealand raised the funds to establish the Registry. Dr Claire Reilly, the coordinator of the nationwide Walk 2 D’Feet MND fundraising events, […] READ MORE

On Friday 5 May, the US Food and Drug Administration (the FDA) announced its approval of the drug ‘edaravone’ for the treatment of MND. This is exciting news. The FDA is the organisation that approves medication in America according to its safety and effectiveness. Edaravone is the first MND medication to […] READ MORE

New research has confirmed a link between pesticides and an increased risk of MND… but don’t panic and chuck out all your non-organic veggies just yet. It’s specifically to do with exposure at work to organochlorine pesticides, many of which are now banned (like DDT). Read more about this interesting line […] READ MORE

Another interesting finding in the ongoing hunt for MND treatments comes from University of Tokyo researchers, who have discovered that a safe, existing anti-epileptic drug called perampanel has successfully prevented the death of motor neurons in mice with an animal model of MND. Their research shows that perampanel is worthy […] READ MORE

If you looked at the motor neurones of people with MND down the microscope, you would see clumps of a protein called TDP-43. Researchers around the world are working to find why these clumps form and how they are linked to MND. Dr Jemeen Sreedharan has been looking at the […] READ MORE

“I’ve never seen a more exciting year,” says Dr Richard Bedlack, top doc at the Duke ALS Clinic in the US. He thinks 2016 is a pivotal year in the fight against MND/ALS, because in just the last year scientists have made a number of potential breakthroughs (greatly due to […] READ MORE