Pathways to protecting and repairing the central nervous system

Summary

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a complex autoimmune and neurodegenerative disease with no clear cause and no known cure. People with MS indicate that new treatments to protect and repair the central nervous system (CNS) is their greatest unmet need.  

Associate Professor Kaylene Young leads a multidisciplinary team of laboratory scientists, clinicians, biostatisticians, epidemiologists, geneticists, MS advocates and MS consumers, 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 signalling 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:  

1. The team will work with clinicians to progress their first potential myelin replacement therapy through a phase II clinical trial and evaluate its efficacy in people with MS;  

2. Using laboratory models, advanced microscopy, behavioural analyses, and electrophysiology, they will investigate how myelin loss and replacement impact brain function;  

3. They will study families with an unusually high incidence of MS, which may render clues as to MS associated genetics. The team will then use induced pluripotent stem cells to characterise the impact of rare, family-specific genetic variants on cell behaviour.