Dr Martin Turner

Who has made the biggest impression on you?

Dr Bowser from Pittsburgh presented pioneering work on the analysis of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) proteins in his group’s effort to find a biomarker of disease activity in MND.

He showed that a protein dynein is found in MND patients but not controls CSF, as well as several other protein changes. This is an extremely important ‘landmark’ discovery that could really change the way we diagnose and monitor MND, as well as providing new insights into mechanisms and drug targets.

He has a large number of samples from patients taken at intervals over the last four years to do further tests on. This is the sort of work I will be combining with my own planned MRI studies and I will now have the benefit of Dr Bowser’s team’s discoveries to focus my analysis.

Which presentation did you find most interesting?

Vucic and colleagues from Sydney presented their findings from a study of a large group of subjects who carry mutations of the superoxide dismutase gene.

These subjects have a very high chance of developing MND later in life and offer the potential to try and detect the earliest changes in the disease before they show physical symptoms.

This is not only important for understanding the first steps along the disease pathway, in the hope of developing new drug targets for everyone with MND, but also to see if candidate drugs given in the presymptomatic stages might prevent or delay onset in this group.

They noticed marked changes in the excitability of the brain in two subjects who went on to develop MND within six months of the study, proving that it is possible to see these early pre-clinical stages of the disease. This raises the potential to intervene and prevent the ‘trigger’ that starts the neurodegenerative cascade.

What has been the highlight of your day?

I took part in the poster session this morning. I have been coming to the International Symposium on ALS/MND since 2000 and over those eight meetings it has been fantastic to see the growth in work presented from all over the world.

There is more going on in MND research now than at any other time and though I understand it never seems to progress fast enough for the patient who is living with the disease (and their carers), I find huge inspiration in the knowledge that when I finish my work for the day, the MND researchers in Australia are just beginning theirs.

Although the MND research community is quite small in comparison to other diseases, people feel an enormous loyalty towards making progress in a terrible disease, and so I believe it is more focused and productive as a result.

Happy, motivated researchers are the best chance for achieving the treatments we all want to see.

What message would you give to someone with MND about what you have learnt so far?

We are closing in on some of the fundamental steps in the disease process in MND, and coupled with the increasing attention back to what we see in the patient, I am confident that we are going to be able to greatly improve the way we screen new treatments i.e. faster answers and a greater number of clinical trials.

Biomarkers of disease activity are imminent I believe, and will be a revolution in the way we diagnose MND and plan care.

How will what you have learnt at the symposium influence your future work?

Seeing what other groups are doing and talking through ideas with colleagues is a vital part of research.

I will leave with new thoughts about how to structure my study over the next five years, and have met at least two people with whom I am now likely to collaborate so that we can be more productive.

As a general point, in common with previous meetings I have attended, the ‘buzz’ at this year’s symposium has renewed my excitement about the huge potential to improve the lives of people living with MND as a result of all the work going on globally.

It is an exciting time to be working in MND research and whilst an out-right cure remains a long-term challenge, the conversion of MND in its early stages to a chronic disease that patients ‘live with’ rather than ‘die of’ is a realistic goal in the short-to-medium term.