Spring cleaning 3 decades of MND and FTD research to better understand genetic variations in the diseases.
Principal Investigator: Dr Russell McLaughlin
Lead Institution: Trinity College Dublin
MND Association Funding: £142,150
Funding dates: September 2026 - February 2030
About the project
Changes in over 40 genes have been linked to the development of MND and FTD and more are still being discovered by researchers. People with MND or FTD can have genetic testing to see if they have a gene change linked to the disease. However, sometimes genetic testing reveals changes that aren’t yet well understood and scientists are unsure whether they play a role in MND/FTD. This research project will review all published genetic research into MND/FTD between 2020 and 2030 and this will be added to an existing database of studies conducted between 1993 and 2020. This resource will be used to look for patterns in the genetic data and calculate how likely each gene change is to play a role in the development of disease.
What could this mean for MND research?
This database of genetic research will be made available on a website to researchers, clinicians, and people with and affected by MND/FTD so that they can benefit from the latest knowledge using a single resource. This project will also increase current knowledge of gene changes and help to identify whether the changes are likely to be linked to MND. This could improve diagnosis, support genetic counselling services and lead to the development of more gene therapies to treat MND/FTD in the future.
Project code: 2566-792