Voiceover: 

Welcome to The Raw Nerve, the official podcast of MS Australia, a conversation space for all things multiple sclerosis. Join us for news and views on the latest research, treatments, and advocacy efforts, as well as candid and informative interviews with our community, those living with MS and their families and carers, together with leading clinicians, researchers, and advocates. 

Jeremy Henderson: 

Hello. Welcome to The Raw Nerve. I’m your host, Jeremy Henderson. Today on The Raw Nerve, we’re talking about new and innovative MS research. Research that’s just been funded under MS Australia’s latest Research Incubator Grant round announced late last month. 

Today, we’ll be speaking with three eminent MS researchers about their new research projects. I’d like to welcome one of those researchers into the studio now, Dr Laura Laslett from Menzies Institute for Medical Research at the University of Tasmania in Hobart. Welcome to you, Laura. 

Laura Laslett: 

Thank you. It’s lovely to be here. 

Jeremy Henderson: 

I’m also joined today by my colleague who’ll be familiar to our guests and to many of our listeners, Dr Tennille Luker is MS Australia’s newly appointed Head of Research. Welcome Tennille and congratulations! 

Tennille Luker: 

Thank you and thank you. It’s great to be here to talk about these. 

Jeremy Henderson: 

Okay. Let’s jump right in, Tennille. So first question to you, I wonder if you could tell us about the incubator grant research funding round that’s just been announced. 

Tennille Luker: 

Absolutely. So, MS Australia has just announced the recipients of its first incubator grant round for 2025, and it’s a really exciting moment for the MS research community. This round has funded four innovative early stage projects, each designed to explore bold new ideas in MS research. The grants are valued at up to $25,000 over one year, and they’re all about helping researchers generate the kind of preliminary data that can unlock larger funding opportunities down the track. 

What’s particularly exciting about this round is the diversity of the research being supported. We’ve got projects looking at myelin repair using immune cell dried particles. We’ve got a project looking at genetic risk and immune response to EBV (Epstein-Barr virus), which is a known risk factor for MS. Changes to blood vessels in the brain in MS and the use of wearable tech and symptom tracking apps to better understand sleep and symptom variability in people with MS. These are all high potential ideas that could lead to major breakthroughs, and they reflect the calibre of applications we received this year. 

So, the incubator grant scheme itself has a strong track record. Historically for every dollar invested, researchers have gone on to secure an additional $27 into follow-on funding, which really accelerates progress. So this round is not only a celebration of new ideas, it’s also a strategic investment in the future of MS research. 

Jeremy Henderson: 

Thanks, Tennille, I think you’ve partly answered this next question already, but I’ll ask you anyway. So, MS Australia plays this vital role not only in funding research, but also in coordinating MS research in Australia. I wonder if you can talk about the role MS Australia plays in that stewardship of MS research and why that’s so vital. 

Tennille Luker: 

Yep. So, MS Australia plays a central role in MS research in this country, and as I said, it’s not just about funding-though that’s a big part of it-it’s about how we help bring people, ideas and resources together to support and strengthen the incredible work happening across the research community. 

While we don’t run the research ourselves, we play a crucial role making sure it happens in the right places with the right people and with the right focus. We find researchers across various institutes and go through a rigorous, independent grants process. So there’s all of trust in how these decisions are made. But what makes MS Australia’s role so vital is the coordination. We help connect the dots, whether that’s through our national collaborative research platforms, which involves groups of experts focusing on specific topics in MS. So, things like genetics or MS Australia’s Brain Bank, which gives researchers access to well-characterised, post-mortem brain tissue cells that are incredibly hard to come by, but essential for understanding MS at a cellular level. These kinds of resources are game changers for the research community. 

In addition to this, MS Australia also communicates this research. We help translate it, share it, and make sure it reaches the right people, which is the MS community, whether that’s through the MS WIRE, social media, or throughout symposiums and conferences. We help make sure the science just doesn’t sit in a journal; it gets out to the world. So that’s what stewardship means to us. It’s about keeping the whole ecosystem moving forward strategically and collaboratively. 

Jeremy Henderson: 

Excellent. Thank you, Tennille. Okay, Laura, if we can actually turn to you and start talking about some of this wonderful research. I wonder if you can tell me about your latest research project. Tell me about the project, what are you doing, how are you doing it, and what are you hoping to find? 

Laura Laslett: 

So, the project that I proposed and which MS Australia has funded, is looking to collect better data on sleep. So, why I’m interested in this is because sleep is a really big problem in people living with MS. And traditionally, we assess that on a large-scale using questionnaires and there’s many advantages to that, but there’s evidence out there that says that when we just collect data using questionnaires, we’re missing bits of the picture. 

And so, one of the things that we wanted to do was to look at collecting data using activity monitors and sleep trackers. Now, we’re not the first people to collect data on sleep using activity monitors, which are basically research-grade Fitbits. But one of the things that we wanted to do was to actually really think about, well, we already know from other data out there that activity monitor data is complementary, but we want to know not just is it complementary, but we also want to know other things like… Mostly, data using these devices is collected for one week, but is that enough? There’s other data that suggests that, probably, for people with MS who’ve got lots of complex things going on, we probably need data longer than that. We probably need to be collecting data from symptom trackers as well. 

And all this is great, but we need to be, before we really just start just doing these things just routinely, we actually need to sit down and think about the data that we’re collecting. Is it actually feasible to do this? Is it acceptable to people? We need to be asking those kind of basic questions before we roll out these kind of things at scale. Is this acceptable to people? Is it feasible? If it’s not acceptable or not feasible, who is it not feasible for? Is there something special about these people that we need to be asking more questions of? And if one week’s not long enough, is two long enough? Maybe we might need three. 

And that these things need to speak to also feasibility and acceptability, because at some point, people don’t want to wear these things forever. You’ve got to draw the line somewhere, but these things are not just academic questions. Obviously, these things are always nice to know, but this kind of level of knowledge is important because when we’re answering questions that matter. For example, does this treatment improve sleep? The choice of the data that we use to answer that question matters. It might be the difference between working out whether a treatment works or it doesn’t work. And so, to be able to be using the best data; to be asking the right questions, the most important questions to get the full picture that we need, we need to be making sure that we’ve got the basics right and to figure out how do we collect the best data on sleep before we just go out and run it in the world. 

Jeremy Henderson: 

Tennille, keen to get your thoughts on this project in terms of that question around feasibility and acceptability. Maybe this was a question for Laura as well, but in terms of people’s awareness around activity trackers and smart watches and sort of that acceptability and the norm of so many people wearing them, I think Tennille might be wearing one now, and I know I’m wearing a garment now as well. And so, I’m wondering whether, just curious to know your thoughts, Tennille, and also Laura, whether that makes this kind of project easier in terms of the norms around existing behaviours with people tracking those kind of things. 

Tennille Luker: 

Yeah. I think Laura’s project really highlights the kind of person-centered innovation we are seeing in this round of incubator grants. I think, as Laura highlighted, it’s not just about collecting data, it’s making sure the data is meaningful, usable for people living with MS. And I think by testing the feasibility of using smart watches and the mySymptoms app over long periods of time, Laura seems to be addressing a real gap on how we understand sleep and symptom variability in MS. 

From a feasibility perspective, I think smart watches is a great way to go and using apps. Traditional surveys and short-term monitoring often miss the nuance of day-to-day changes. And I think this project is asking, as Laura said, can they do it better, and can they capture those fluctuations in a way that actually informs treatment. So, it’s a foundational step, but an important one. And if these tools prove to be practical and acceptable, they could really reshape how we design clinical trials plus link interventions in MS and ultimately lead to better outcomes for people affected by MS. 

Jeremy Henderson: 

Thank you, Tennille. 

Laura, going forward, how would you like to see this type of data used? 

Laura Laslett: 

Well, what I want to see this data used for and used as, is to help make decisions about how we’re going to collect data on sleep, when we’re doing studies where we’re figuring out whether stuff works. Because the choice of an outcome measure can make or break a clinical trial. Because we just kind of assume that if something works, we’re going to figure it out. But if you don’t use the right outcome measure, then it can be almost impossible to figure out that something that does actually work works. We need to have the right outcomes to be sending the right signals to regulators and people who are paying for it…for treatments, that these things are worth paying for. 

But also, for every piece of information that we’re collecting comes at a cost. It’s my life hours, it’s your life hours, the life hours of the people analysing studies. And the better the data you collect, the more likely it is that you’re going to have to inconvenience fewer people to be part of the clinical trials to get the answer you want. That’s really what we’re all after; is that we want to get the answers to the questions that matter to us, in a way that is cheapest and inconveniences the fewest number of people for the shortest period of time to get the answer we want, because we all want answers yesterday to today’s problems, but everything takes time. So, it’s worth thinking about the data that we collect and to how we can do it best. 

Jeremy Henderson: 

Can I ask, what inspired you to get into MS research, and what do you most enjoy about this work? 

Laura Laslett: 

I got into MS research from another unrelated area of research. So I’m an epidemiologist and I have been working in that in a long time. But one of the reasons I got into MS was the opportunities that are available. One of the things is that there’s such a talent pool in Australia of researchers with plenty of talent, but there’s never enough money. There’s never…there’s not always the right opportunities at the right time. And one of the things about MS research, there’s a lot of opportunity. 

The MS community loves research. They want research done, and importantly, they are willing to pay for it to be done in their name. They’re serious about figuring out what their priorities are. That’s just really important for someone like me. When a group says, “This is what’s important to us.” And then if something that meets my skill set, I’m able to contribute. It’s just personally meaningful to me to be able to be doing research that’s important to people, and that it’s important, and that the people who want it are willing to fund it. 

There’s always work, but there’s not always funding and it’s not always the right priorities. So, I’ve been able to find a niche in MS research that’s personally meaningful to me and just gives me a lot of opportunity and it means that I’m able to do something that’s personally meaningful to me, that makes me feel like I’m able to make a difference in my little corner of the research world for people living with MS, to make their lives better. 

Jeremy Henderson: 

Tennille, at MS Australia, we can absolutely speak to the MS community’s incredible passion and support and enthusiasm for MS research. 

Tennille Luker: 

Well, we conduct a research priority survey, research and advocacy priority survey every few years. We just conducted one this year that we’re in the process of analysing. But definitely when it comes to research, the MS community are absolutely passionate about it. They’re passionate about it from the perspective of advocacy as well, and they’re incredibly engaged as well. So, I’m sure this year’s survey results are going to show very similar results as well. 

Jeremy Henderson: 

Laura, just one final question for you. Just in terms of participation in your trial, how do you go about that, and how difficult or easy is it to find people willing to be involved in that research? 

Laura Laslett: 

Well, it’s always a bit of a challenge trying to find people to take part in studies because it’s people’s life hours. And so we are recruiting already. So this study is underway. We’ve already had two people finish our study, which is three weeks long. We’ve got a link up, which we could provide. We’re trying to recruit people locally to us in Southern Tasmania because we’d like people to come and pick up their activity monitors because they’re valuable to us, and we are trying to avoid them getting lost, because getting lost with three weeks data, which is three weeks of someone’s life. That’s very sad, and I haven’t had to deal with that yet, but I can see that will be a very sad day when that first happens to me. So we’re trying to recruit locally in Southern Tasmania for people living with MS. 

So, people living with MS in Southern Tasmania, I’d be super keen to hear from you, and I’ll send along the link. Recruitment’s been a slow start so far, but we have two people who’ve finished, and we’ve already had some interest in the last couple of days. And so, we’re aiming to recruit 50 people living with MS, probably in Southern Tasmania, but we also have had interest in Northern Tasmania as well. And so, we’ll be looking to post out the activity monitors to those people. 

There’s 33,000 people living with MS in Australia. So, the people living with MS in Australia have always historically been very interested in taking part in research, but we’re trying to recruit locally just for our own, to make it easier for us. But I would love it if we would have a great number of people local to us in southern Tasmania contact us to take part in the next couple of weeks. That would be amazing. 

Jeremy Henderson: 

Excellent. Well, we’ll certainly add that link into the show notes of the podcast. 

So, look, we’ll take a short break now. Can I thank our first guest, MS researcher, DrLaura Laslett. Thank you very much for joining us on The Raw Nerve Podcast. 

Tennille Luker, don’t you go anywhere. We’ll be right back after the short break with our next guests. Thank you. 

Voiceover: 

You’re listening to The Raw Nerve, the official podcast of MS Australia, a conversation space for all things multiple sclerosis. Subscribe to our podcast today at msaustralia.org.au/podcast. And now, back to the show. 

Jeremy Henderson: 

Hello. Welcome back to The Raw Nerve. Today, we’ve been talking about new and innovative MS research, research that’s been funded under MS Australia’s latest research incubator grant round that we announced just last week. 

I’d now like to welcome our next two guests into the studio to speak about their research grants and the exciting work that they will shortly be getting underway. Firstly, we have Dr Monokesh Sen from the University of Sydney. Welcome, Monokesh. 

Monokesh Sen: 

Hi Jeremy and everyone. It’s very lovely to be here. 

Jeremy Henderson: 

And from the University of South Australia, we have Dr David Stacey. Welcome, David. 

David Stacey: 

Hello. Thanks for having me on. 

Jeremy Henderson: 

And still with us in the studio we have my colleague, MS Australia’s Head of Research, Dr Tennille Luker. 

Tennille, thank you for staying with us and helping us unpack some of this work. 

Tennille Luker: 

It’s great to be back. 

Jeremy Henderson: 

Monokesh, tell me about your research project. 

Monokesh Sen: 

Sure. Thank you, Jeremy. So in this work, we’re going to investigate the role of macrophage-derived extracellular vesicles in a remyelination process. So this is the overall idea. 

Jeremy Henderson: 

Macrophage-derived extracellular vesicles: what are they? I wonder if we can start with that. What are we looking at? 

Monokesh Sen: 

So, macrophages are the peripheral immune cells. In (the) brain, it is called the microglia. The CNS (central nervous system) resident cells in microglia is called, in the central nervous system, it is called microglia, and in periphery it is called macrophages. 

So, macrophages and every other cells in our body, they secrete, they release extracellular vesicles. So that are released outside of the cell. So those are called extracellular, so that is outside of the cell, and the vesicles, those are small molecules. So, in short, those are called macrophage-derived. So it’s releasing from macrophages and extracellular vesicles. In our work, we want to investigate the role of these vesicles in remyelination in MS. So that’s the overall idea. 

Jeremy Henderson: 

Okay, and how do you go about doing that? 

Monokesh Sen: 

Okay. That’s very interesting. How do want to do? At first, we will collect blood sample, mainly peripheral blood mononuclear cells or PBMC in short, from people with progressive MS and healthy controls. Then we will differentiate those PBMC into macrophages in culture. So those macrophages will secrete extracellular vesicles in the culture media. So we will take out those media and isolate those extracellular vesicles using some laboratory techniques, such as ultracentrifugation and size exclusion chromatography. 

Once we get those extracellular vesicles, we’ll further characterise them whether or not those are really vesicles. So, we’ll do it by some other specialised techniques such as Nanoparticle Tracking Analysis, which tracks the particles and western blotting, to see a specific extracellular vesicles related protein and Transmission Electron Microscopy, to see actual structure of the extracellular vesicles. 

Now, once we do all this characterisation, then we want to inject those vesicles onto mice. At first, we want to see its bio-distribution. What I mean is, where does it go in the mouse? So, we will inject them intranasally and then we’ll image them, different time points to investigate their bio-distribution at cellular level as well as tissue level. Once it confirm that, okay, those vesicles are entering in the brain as well as targeting oligodendrocytes, there is our target cell, for example, then we want to investigate its function. 

And in this project, we want to investigate its role in remyelination. The way we’ll do it, at first, we’ll inject again those extracellular vesicles to mice. Again, it’ll be by intranasally. And then and look at the function in an animal model of multiple sclerosis. So in this case, we’ll use a model called cuprizone animal model. So, once…in this model, if we feed mice with a drug called cuprizone, it causes demyelination. And when we inject these extracellular vesicles from people with MS, as well as control, we want to see the effect of those vesicles in oligodendrocytes and myelin GPR. 

What we expect…that extracellular vesicles, those are coming from progressive MS, will negatively impact the remyelination process, whereas the extracellular vesicles, those are coming from healthy people, will accelerate this remyelination process. That is our expectation or that’s what we are going to achieve at the end, because we want to see remyelination. Yeah, thank you. 

Jeremy Henderson: 

Thank you. Maybe just one last question. So, looking beyond this research project, how do you think this study will influence the understanding and treatment of MS? 

Monokesh Sen: 

There are a lot of medications nowadays for the people with MS. Those medications are mainly used to suppress autoimmunity and reducing inflammation. Those medications has very limited impact on promoting remyelination. So as a result, people with MS…they experience continuous neurodegeneration and demyelination, and disability. 

So, in this work, we want to target this urgent need, so that we can target remyelination or we can promote demyelination. We know that macrophages or microglia; they have effect on remyelination, but we do not know how. There are several other reasons, such as phagocytosis and others, but one of the reasons can be via these extracellular vesicles. So we want to investigate a mechanism. Once we know how this occurs, then we can take those vesicles and can use those vesicles as a modulator of oligodendrocytes and remyelination. So that is the overall idea, and that is what we want to investigate. 

Jeremy Henderson: 

Thank you very much. 

David, I wonder if we can turn to you. I wonder if I can ask you about your latest research project. What’s the title of your project, and what are you looking to discover? 

David Stacey: 

Yeah. The title is A Novel Use of Human Genetics to Recruit Participants for MS Research. We’re using a method called recall-by-genotype to try to pull this off. 

Just to describe what that method is, so that approach is. So it’s an approach that uses naturally occurring genetic variants to stratify human volunteers into genetic risk groups for comparison. And so in this study that we’re going to conduct here, we’ll be recruiting two groups of participants that differ according to their genetic risk of MS. 

I think one thing worth highlighting here is that none of the participants we’re going to recruit will actually have MS. And so, we can be confident that any biological differences that we actually see will not be a consequence of already having the disease but will be more likely to reflect predisposing factors. So on that basis, the idea here is that this work will hopefully help to inform new treatments or perhaps even opportunities to prevent MS. 

Jeremy Henderson: 

Tennille, let me just jump to you if I can. So I think we’ve heard from David, we’ve heard from Monokesh, but these projects really speak to the nature of the incubator grants program, this idea of really, really innovative work. What is MS Australia hoping for with the investment in these new, exciting areas? 

Tennille Luker: 

Yeah. So both Monokesh and David’s projects are pushing boundaries in very different but complimentary ways. So Monokesh’s project is exploring how tiny particles released by immune cells called extracellular vesicles might help with to repair myelin. And what we’re hoping for here is a deeper understanding of how these vesicles influence myelin-producing cells and whether they can be harnessed to promote regeneration. 

So, if successful, this could really pave the way for new therapies that actually repair damage in progressive MS, which as something, as Monokesh mentioned, it’s something current treatments can’t really do. 

For David’s work, on the other hand, he’s tackling MS from a prevention and prediction angle, and he’s using, as he said, a novel recall-by-genotype approach to recruit people based on their genetic risk. And this is something that hasn’t really been done in MS research before. So, by studying the immune and viral markers in people who don’t have MS but are genetically predisposed, the team hopes to uncover what are the biological signals that can contribute to disease onset. So, what we’re really hoping for here is a new way to identify people at risk and potentially intervene before symptoms even begin. 

So, I guess what I want to highlight here is together these projects represent two ends of the spectrum, looking at prevention and regeneration, and both are incredibly promising steps towards improving outcomes for people living with MS. 

Jeremy Henderson: 

Thank you. 

David, if I can just come back to you and Tennille, I think you both mentioned that this hasn’t been, your project, it hasn’t been tackled in this way before. Why is that and why have you decided to go down that avenue? 

David Stacey: 

Yeah. I think one of the key things for a recall-by-genotype study…you need good infrastructure and resources to be able to conduct that. So, really, the central thing you need is access to a cohort of volunteers. You have two main things. Firstly, genetic data that’s already been collected. And secondly, informed consent to recall them for future studies based on that genetic data, their personal genetic data. And that’s something, at least to my knowledge, yet we don’t have access to those resources in Australia. That’s something that our team have been setting up over the past 12 to 18 months. 

The reason why I’ve fallen into this is because in my previous post in the UK, we did quite a lot of work in recall-by-genotype, looking at cardiovascular disease outcomes. In the UK, and I think there’s pockets in the U.S. where we do have these resources, but I think as far as Australian research, sure, this is kind of a…almost new frontier that requires these resources to be put in place first. 

Jeremy Henderson: 

Thank you, David. 

Tennille, if I can come back to you. So, there is a fourth incubator grant recipient, Dr Alastair Fortune from the Menzies Institute for Medical Research at the University of Tasmania. Alastair can’t be here today on this podcast, but I’d really be interested in hearing about his research. 

Tennille Luker: 

Yeah. So, Alastair’s project is a fascinating and much-needed exploration into the role of brain vascular cells. These are cells of blood vessels, and he’s looking at that in the development of MS. While MS is widely known as an immune-mediated disease, recent genetic studies suggest that vascular cells may also play a critical role in its onset. Alastair and his team are investigating whether these cells are dysfunctional even before immune cells begin to attack. 

To do this, Alastair and his team are using what’s known as induced pluripotent stem cells. These are immature cells that can produce any cell type in the body, and he’s using this to generate vascular cells from people with and without MS, allowing them to compare how these cells behave in a controlled environment. 

One of the big questions that the team is exploring is whether changes in blood flow in MS might be caused by differences in how certain blood vessel cells are programmed by our DNA. They’ll also examine how these cells respond when placed in an MS lesion-like environment. So, I guess what we’re hoping for here is a breakthrough in understanding how vascular abnormalities might contribute to MS, potentially even before the immune system gets involved. This could potentially open up entirely new avenues for early detection and intervention, shifting how we think about the causes and progression of MS. 

Jeremy Henderson: 

Thank you, Tennille. 

Now Monokesh, you are originally from Bangladesh. I wonder if I can ask you what inspired you to get involved in MS research and what do you enjoy most about the work that you’re doing? 

Monokesh Sen: 

Yes. I’m from Bangladesh and actually I’m very interested in science and scientific discoveries and that pushed me to cross the Pacific Ocean and travel from Bangladesh to Australia. 

During my PhD and my postdoctoral training, I was very fortunate to get exceptional mentorship both at Western Sydney University, where I did my PhD, as well as during postdoc at St Vincent Centre and the University of Sydney, where I’m working. Now, in those places, I worked with different academics who is …very prominent academics in this field. While I was working with them, the understanding on MS and neuroimmunology has been reshaped, and that sparked me to work in this field. 

Now to answer your second question, I’m very interested to work in the lab to generate new ideas and analyse them and interpret them. Now those involves formulating new hypotheses and apply those hypotheses into experiments and get the data. 

During this time, I think I enjoy mostly to investigate new area of science. This work on extracellular vesicles is a new direction in my scientific journey. We know extracellular vesicles is very tiny, but we believe it is very powerful. From those vesicles, we can know many things, such as what causes neuroinflammation as well as in other neurodegenerative diseases and MS. And we are hopeful that by investigating the roll of extracellular vesicles, we can understand the sum of the mechanism, what happens in MS, and we can repair myelin that is mainly needed in this field. 

Jeremy Henderson: 

Thank you, Monokesh. 

David, same question for you. What motivates and drives you forward every day? 

David Stacey: 

Yeah. So, I just really enjoy the problem-solving aspects of doing day-to-day research and this whole potential to uncover novel insights that could potentially help someone in future. That’s what drives me on a day-to-day basis. 

I’m also really excited in some of the new technology that’s coming online these days, enabling research that wouldn’t have been possible even just a few years ago, I think. A good example of these platforms enabling the measurement of antibodies with really high resolution, which we know has had already had an impact on the MS field and other fields as well. So yeah, the potential of this technology, of what it could deliver in the fairly near future, I think, is really exciting and motivating. 

Jeremy Henderson: 

Excellent. It’s wonderful to hear both of you speak so passionately and enthusiastically about the work that you’re doing, the important work that you’re doing. 

Tennille, a final question for you as we wrap up our podcast. I often hear the MS Australia investigator-led grant program described as the gold standard in terms of the checks and balances and the way the program’s run and managed, and the way the incubator grant recipients, such as Laura and Monokesh and David, and Alastair are selected and chosen. I wonder whether you could just… We could have a peek behind the curtains. What does that rigorous process look like? 

Tennille Luker: 

Yeah, sure. So yes, it’s absolutely true that MS Australia’s investigator-led grant program is widely regarded as a gold standard. The reason for that is because of the program’s rigorous, transparent, and highly competitive selection process, which ensures that only the most promising and impactful research gets funded. 

So, each year, MS Australia offers a range of grants, all of which are awarded through a robust peer review process. Applications are assessed by the Research Management Council or RMC for short, which is a panel of independent Australian experts who score each grant application based on scientific merit, innovation, feasibility in alignment with MS Australia’s strategic priorities. 

For incubator grants specifically, the focus, as I said before, is on early-stage high potential ideas, the kind of blue sky thinking that can generate pilot data and lead to larger projects down the track. They’re designed to foster innovation and collaboration and help researchers build the evidence-base needed to secure major funding from bodies such as the National Health and Medical Research Council or the Medical Research Future Fund. 

Importantly, the program is modelled on the National Health and Medical Research Council standards with clear eligibility criteria, strict page limits, and conflict of interest protocols. Also, all applications must demonstrate a direct link to advancing our understanding or treatment of MS. 

The final decisions for grants that are awarded are made by the MS Australia Board based on the recommendations of the RMC and strategic alignment. This ensures the funding is allocated purely on merit and impact. And yes, it’s incredibly competitive, and the quality of this year’s recipients, including Laura, Monokesh, David, and Alastair, really speaks to the strength of the process. These are researchers who are not only pushing boundaries in their fields but also deeply committed to improving outcomes for people living with MS. 

Jeremy Henderson: 

As MS Australia’s Head of Research, how personally and professionally excited do you get when you see some of these research applications coming through and the work that is being put forward? 

Tennille Luker: 

I get super excited. I was incredibly excited when I saw these four incubator grants in particular because they’re addressing each of the priorities of the MS community. So, the top three research priorities of the MS community are a cure, looking at regeneration and repair of myelin; better treatments and prevention, and all four projects are looking across those three priorities. So I’ve got super excited. But yes, it’s incredibly exciting just to see the diversity of projects that are submitted as grant applications. 

Just to add on to that, we get a lot of grant applications. So while I’m excited, I’m also like, “Oh wow, there’s a lot to get through here. How are we going to fund all of these?” Because they all look incredible. So it is very exciting professionally and personally as well, yes. 

Jeremy Henderson: 

Thank you, Tennille. 

Monokesh and David, congratulations on your new research projects. Thank you very much for joining us today. And Tennille, thank you for you joining us on the podcast today. Thank you all for being so generous with your time, sharing your knowledge and your expertise with us. Until next time. Thank you. 

Voiceover: 

Thanks for listening to The Raw Nerve, the official podcast of MS Australia. To hear more, subscribe to our podcast today at msaustralia.org.au/podcast.