25 April 2023 Research

The Motor Neurone Disease (MND) Association is continuing its work with biotech company PrecisionLife to increase our understanding of MND.

The collaborative project involves using AI to analyse disease population datasets with the aim of understanding factors that contribute to MND. Previously PrecisionLife used its platform analysis for Project MinE datasets and identified 33 new genes associated with increased risk for MND.

This latest initiative will analyse genetic data from more than 1,000 already sequenced samples together with additional information from MND Collections, including disease severity, age of death, and MND subtype diagnosis. Combining genetic data with clinical details and epidemiological studies means that the analysis can find different groups of people with MND who share the same risk factors and disease progression.

The insights created by this AI platform can also be used to build models that can predict risk of developing MND in a more personalised way as well as identifying subgroups that may respond to targeted treatment approaches. Advances in AI technology also mean that results are generated much faster than has previously been possible, potentially in weeks rather than years, which speeds up the process of getting a drug into clinical trials.

This project is a fantastic example of the rich amounts of information that can be obtained from MND Collections and Project MinE.

We would like to thank all participants, donors and carers, without whom this invaluable research resource would not exist.

Read more on the PrecisionLife website