A brain in a dish: Developing a sophisticated system to test MS treatments

Summary

There is a lack of therapies for people with progressive MS. Currently, intense focus on the development of therapies that promote myelin (the protective sheath around nerves) repair for the treatment of progressive MS is underway. One of the major challenges in developing drugs for progressive MS is translating promising therapies from pre-clinical models to clinical use. An ongoing challenge for the field is the lack of suitable human models for testing new therapies. To bridge the gap between existing limited laboratory models and human clinical trials, new models of myelin damage and repair using human cells are crucial.  

In this project we plan to make a "brain in a dish" – a method where stem cells can be used to generate a complex 3D culture that can mimic some of the functions of a brain, including the formation of myelin that is damaged in MS. We will develop a method to use these "mini-brains" to model the myelin damage we see in MS, so that ultimately, we can use this model to test promising new treatments for progressive MS.

This will provide a critical tool to bridge the gap between mouse models and human testing, increasing the chance of success in clinical trials.