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news.The largest awards ever made for research aimed at protecting and reversing neurological damage and restoring function in people with multiple sclerosis are going to four teams in the US and Europe, who will use $15.6 million from the National Multiple Sclerosis Society to lay the groundwork for clinical trials over the next five years.
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The research teams that will receive the awards are based at Johns Hopkins University, University of Wisconsin Madison, University of Cambridge, and University College London, with other collaborators in Canada, Europe and the US
These awards are part of the National MS Society’s “Promise 2010 Campaign”, a nationwide effort to raise at least $30 million for targeted areas of research and patient care that hold great potential in the fight to end the devastating effects of MS, but which have so far been under-explored.
“We’re excited that these international ‘dream teams’ of leading scientists and physicians have accepted our challenge to develop the tools needed for conducting clinical trials aimed at protecting against and repairing nervous tissue damage in MS,” said Dr John Richert, vice president of Research & Clinical Programs at the National MS Society. “This is a new chapter in MS research and should serve as a springboard for translating basic lab findings into important new treatments for people with MS.”
MS involves a misdirected immune system attack against myelin, the coating on nerve fibers that speeds nerve signals, and also destroys the underlying nerve fiber itself, causing symptoms like numbness, blindness, cognitive dysfunction and paralysis.
Recent progress in controlling immune attacks, coupled with rapid advances in the neurosciences, have made nervous tissue repair and protection emergent areas of MS research, prompting the National MS Society’s unprecedented investment.