- MS Research Australia has launched a 5-year strategic partnership with the St Vincent’s Curran Foundation.
- This partnership is to help establish a Centre of Excellence in Cellular Therapy at St Vincent’s Hospital in Sydney.
- The Centre is to accelerate research and delivery of cellular therapies to people with MS amongst other diseases.
MS Research Australia is delighted to announce a strategic, five-year partnership with the St Vincent’s Curran Foundation to advance cellular therapies for MS, including autologous hematopoietic stem cell transplant (AHSCT). Together we are working to help establish the St Vincent’s Hospital Sydney Centre of Excellence in Cellular Therapy.
The MS Research Australia and St Vincent’s Curran Foundation partnership aims to accelerate research and treatment of people with autoimmune diseases as well as those with malignancies. For MS, it will hopefully help clarify who best responds to treatment, as well as ensure that people with MS can continue to access stem cell therapies under observational trial conditions. With increased attention in these areas, clinicians and researchers will have the opportunities and information to facilitate ground-breaking research into cellular therapies.
St Vincent’s Hospital Sydney has been at the forefront of bone marrow and stem cell transplantation since 1975 when the very first bone marrow transplant to treat cancer in Australia was undertaken. Since 2011, they have also been using AHSCT in clinical trials as a treatment for MS. AHSCT, also known as stem-cell transplantation or bone marrow transplant, is an intensive procedure and there are various risks associated with the treatment.
“We are proud to support St Vincent’s and the Centre of Excellence in Cellular Therapy. Our goal is to accelerate ASHCT research for MS here in Australia and hope this model can be expanded to additional centres around Australia” said Dr Julia Morahan, Head of Research, MS Research Australia.
“We look forward to progressing research to improve outcomes for people with MS.”
MS Research Australia has worked with St Vincent’s for many years and this important partnership builds on our commitment to AHSCT and stem cell research. The partnership contributes to the creation of a Centre of Excellence in Cellular Therapy, In addition to MS Research Australia, singer-songwriter Delta Goodrem has announced her philanthropic support for the Centre to significantly increase the research focus on cellular therapies for hematological cancers and MS.
To further accelerate AHSCT research and drawing on the expertise, the MS Research Australia AHSCT clinical registry has recently been transferred to St Vincent’s Hospital Sydney. The team at St Vincent’s are also responsible for the Australasian Bone Marrow Transplant Recipient Registry (ABMTRR), which follows people who have undergone bone marrow transplants in Australia and New Zealand. The team at St Vincent’s Hospital will link the ABMTRR with the prestigious and powerful MS clinical registry, MSBase to help accelerate research. If you are a person with MS who has undergone AHSCT either in Australia or overseas and want to be included in the registry, talk to your neurologist to be included MSBase.
For more information on AHSCT please visit msra.org.au/ahsct or msra.org.au/news/ahsct-explained
To donate to support this important AHSCT research, visit msra.org.au/donate and select AHSCT as your specific field of research; or contact Tim Roseman to discuss funding and partnerships opportunities on 1300 356 467 or troseman@msra.org.au.
