19 June 2025 News
York & Scarborough Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust has joined pioneering clinical trial platform MND-SMART. Recruitment to the trial is underway (June 2025).
Led by Principal Investigator and Consultant Neurologist, Dr Malcolm Proudfoot, York and Scarborough Hospitals are the newest centres to open recruitment to MND-SMART. This latest launch reflects MND-SMART’s commitment to ensure that people living with motor neurone disease (MND) have access to research opportunities.
The MND-SMART clinical trial is based at the Euan MacDonald Centre for MND Research at the University of Edinburgh and open to the vast majority of people living with MND across the UK. It is designed to speed up the search for new and effective medicines that can stop, slow or reverse the progression of MND.
This latest news means more people have the opportunity to participate in clinical research which seeks to find better treatments against this devastating disease. Thanks to the MND-SMART trial, people in York and Scarborough will now be able to join this important, well-designed study, without travelling long distances.
The MND Association is one of the funders of MND-SMART, announcing in June 2023 a commitment of £500,000 towards a £2.5 million investment in MND-SMART alongside MND Scotland.
We are delighted to be contributing to this clinical trial platform which is intent on achieving greater equity of access for people with MND. We are pleased our funding will help towards aiding the clinical testing of potential new therapies. None of this would be possible without the support from those who have generously donated to the MND Association. The hope is that through continuing public support, collaboration and partnership working, we will find effective treatments and, ultimately, a cure for this devastating disease.
Dr Brian Dickie, Chief Scientist at the MND Association
The design of MND-SMART allows for multiple drug treatments to be tested at the same time, speeding up progress and reducing the number of people with MND who would be assigned to a ‘placebo’ group.
MND-SMART has started with ‘repurposed’ drugs which are already approved for use in other conditions. This means all the safety testing and development work has already been done, saving time and money. Currently the drug amantadine, a licensed drug that is mainly used in the UK for the treatment of Parkinson’s disease and fatigue in multiple sclerosis, is being tested.
The MND-SMART team is committed to opening more sites across the UK in 2025. Learn more about MND-SMART including how to register interest and its trial centres.