Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a complex autoimmune and neurodegenerative disease with no clear cause and no known cure. People with MS indicate that their greatest unmet need is new treatments to protect and repair the brain and spinal cord.
Professor Kaylene Young leads a team of laboratory scientists, clinicians, biostatisticians, epidemiologists, geneticists, MS advocates and people living with MS, representing diverse experiences and vital perspectives to bridge the gap between MS research and practice. Their goal is to carry out laboratory research to identify signaling pathways that lead to the development of MS, learn how brain circuit function is impacted by MS, and design and translate treatments to protect and repair the brain. For this project there are three major goals:
Professor Kaylene Young, Professor Bruce Taylor, and their team have made important progress across their laboratory and clinical research program aimed at understanding MS and developing approaches to protect and repair the brain.
Their phase II multicentre TAURUS2 clinical trial tested whether magnetic brain stimulation (transcranial magnetic stimulation; TMS) could improve symptoms or support repair processes in people with MS. The trial recruited more than 100 people with MS across Australia and has now been completed.
Results showed that the treatment was safe but did not improve clinical disability or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) measures of disease activity. The team is now carefully reviewing the full trial process to better understand why results seen in the laboratory did not translate into benefits in people with MS. They note that while participants completed 20 treatment sessions over five weeks, these treatments did not occur over weekends. The team are considering whether TMS may need to be delivered over a longer period, and whether it is most effective when given continuously, without breaks in treatment.
Professor Kaylene Young and her team would like to acknowledge and thank the study participants for their time and commitment, as well as the MS lived experience representatives, and the laboratory and clinical research teams for their contributions to this trial.
In parallel to the above research, the team’s laboratory studies have provided new insight into how myelin loss affects nerve cells. Their work shows that loss of myelin can make nerve cells more sensitive to stimulation, which may increase the risk of cell stress and damage. Importantly, restoring myelin reversed these effects in experimental models, returning nerve cell activity closer to normal. These findings support the idea that therapies that repair myelin may help protect nerve cells in MS.
Building on these findings, Professor Kaylene Young and her team will continue investigating the biological processes that drive nerve cell damage and repair in MS.
Updated 31 March 2026Â
$650,000
2022
5 years
Current project
