Over recent decades, the clinical diagnosis of multiple sclerosis (MS) has improved by including brain and spinal cord scans, and lumbar puncture results in diagnostic criteria.
However, blood tests to diagnose MS are not yet available, making diagnosis time-consuming. This prevents MS from being treated from the earliest stage. To overcome this challenge, a better understanding of the molecular basis of MS is needed. This will help identify the key points of intervention for stopping the underlying mechanisms that trigger or drive disease.
Advanced technologies can now measure thousands of molecules to see if they might be biological signs (biomarkers) of MS, including proteins that play key roles in most biological pathways.
Dr Xin Lin’s previous PhD work combined large sets of biological data with clinical data in the search for biomarkers of MS. In this work, he found proteins that were associated with MS.
For this project, Dr Lin and his team worked to expand on this, using large international datasets and the latest statistical methods. The aim was to confirm these proteins as biomarkers of MS and to find new biomarkers.
The second aim was to analyse proteins in people with and without MS and examine how they are associated with other MS-related molecules and contribute to disease risk. These proteins may represent promising targets for developing new diagnostic tests and more targeted treatments for MS.
This project has made important progress in identifying potential blood-based biomarkers for MS and advancing methods to measure them. In particular, Dr Lin used advanced computational tools to analyse large public datasets and identified proteins that may play a role in MS and act as potential biomarkers. Other research teams have recently reported similar findings using comparable approaches, strengthening confidence in these results.
Dr Lin also refined a cutting-edge laboratory method to measure proteins in a small test group of individuals with and without MS to identify potential biomarkers of MS. The study originally aimed to analyse 120 blood samples, and with the support of this Incubator Grant and additional funding, this was expanded to 368 samples. This includes samples from people living with MS who have been participating in the team’s study for up to 15 years.
The team is now analysing these data, which will be combined with other measures from the same participants (e.g., genetic and metabolic data). This integrated approach will provide a complete understanding of how different biological factors may work together to influence MS risk.
Advances in this area of research will bring us closer to developing blood tests to improve MS diagnosis, monitoring, and treatment.
This Incubator Grant also supported Dr Lin’s development as an early-career researcher, including independently leading the study to completion and co-supervising a PhD candidate who will build on these findings.
Updated 31 Mar 2026Â
$25,000
2024
1 year
Past project
