MS Australia has awarded over $3 million in grants for multiple sclerosis (MS) research towards 22 new projects. These include studies that examine family genetics, the impact of diet on brain health, and the repair and regeneration of cells that have the potential to lead to significant advances in treatment and prevention and finding cures for MS.
MS Australia CEO Rohan Greenland said the grants, which range from one-year innovative studies to major three-year projects, will ensure that an extensive range of promising research avenues are explored in the pursuit of improving the quality of life for people living with MS. The new grants also include fellowships and scholarships.
Several projects will focus on repairing and regenerating the cells damaged by MS, which could lead to a 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,” Greenland said. “We’ll be hitting MS from every direction with these research projects to ensure we go further and faster towards better treatments and prevention of the disease, and our ultimate goal of stopping MS in its tracks.”
Researchers will determine whether people with MS who have undergone Autologous Haematopoietic Stem Cell Transplant (AHSCT) who have developed a new immune system capable of rapidly controlling EBV are more likely to have a sustained response to MS treatment.
MS is the most commonly acquired chronic neurological disease affecting young adults and affects three times more women than men. As yet, there is no cure.
A recent report found that from 2017 to 2021 MS increased 30 per cent in Australia.
The full details of all new research projects funded in 2023 can be found here: