Choosing the right drug candidates to test in clinical trials.
Project co-leads: Professor Chris McDermott and Professor Martin Turner
Lead Institution: UK MND Research Institute (UK MNDRI)
MND Association Funding: £1,050,000
Funding dates: September 2023 - September 2028
*Principally funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR), additional funding from MND Association in partnership with LifeArc and My Name'5 Doddie Foundation.
About the project
Currently, drugs that are put forward for clinical trials are based on research done in the laboratory and have not been tested in people living with MND. This is part of the reason for the low success rate of clinical trials in MND to date. To address this issue, EXPErimental Route To Success in ALS (EXPERTS-ALS) is a programme that is screening drugs showing promise for MND in the laboratory in eligible people living with MND, before the drugs then progress to larger clinical trials. The aim of the platform is to reduce the time it takes to get a possible treatment from ‘bench to bedside’, by enabling promising drugs to be tested in people with MND earlier, rather than continuing testing in the lab. This will allow scientists to investigate whether the drugs show early signs of benefit and are therefore more likely to be successful in future clinical trials. A ‘go’ or ‘no-go’ decision can be reached within a few months, and successful drugs can be prioritised for testing in the larger phase 3 trial platforms, such as MND-SMART, to fully test their potential as a treatment.
What could this mean for MND research?
It is hoped that EXPERTS-ALS will offer a higher chance of positive outcomes for drugs that have shown promise for treating MND in the laboratory. The funding we are contributing is helping to extend the study to five years and to support additional lab research within the platform. We are also contributing an additional £50,000 towards training early career researchers. This will give more people with MND the opportunity to take part in EXPERTS-ALS now and in the future, and help to support the MND research workforce.
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Project code: 2609-707
