Exploring whether FUS plays a role in making synapses vulnerable to being damaged at the early stages of MND.
Principal Investigator: Dr Caroline Vance
PhD Student: Cara Hatton
Lead Institution: King's College London
MND Association Funding: £143,633
Funding dates: June 2025 - November 2028
About the project
Synapses are the connections between neurons and they are vital in sending messages from one neuron to another and then to the muscles. In MND these connection points are vulnerable and can become damaged and die. Recent evidence suggests that synapses become damaged before nerve cells but the reason why this happens is not known. Previous research has shown that a protein called FUS is important for communication at the synapse and for creating the building blocks of the synapse. This project aims to further understand the role that FUS plays at the synapse and the impact of that role in models of MND where FUS is faulty.
What could this mean for MND research?
This project aims to understand more about why damage at the synapses happens in the early stages of MND. Understanding more about what goes wrong in MND will help to identify new targets for therapeutic intervention and could eventually lead to the development of new potential treatments.
Project code: 2331-792