Welcome to day two of our International Symposium on ALS / MND. We will be bringing you live updates throughout the day once again. 

Heading into our first session…watch this space.

And what an incredible start to our Symposium. We’re heading off, enthused and excited about tomorrow.  

We’ll be bringing you coverage from our first ever session on primary lateral sclerosis (PLS), psychological aspects of MND, biomarkers, nutrition and respiration and much, much more.  

Having enjoyed more fascinating talks, a mention must go to MND Association funded, world-leading neurologist and geneticist Jonathan Cooper-Knock from the University of Sheffield. He explained how, through his work, researchers used a powerful new method to study hundreds of thousands of brain cells from people with MND. They found different types of brain cells change in different ways in MND — some increase, some decrease, and many show disrupted gene activity. They also identified a unique type of astrocyte found only in MND. An astrocyte is a specific type of cell that performs jobs necessary to keep the nervous system healthy and working properly. These findings give a clearer picture of how MND develops and point to new possible targets for treatment. 

As we mentioned earlier Dr Cooper-Knock has been appointed to the first Rob Burrow Professorship in Translational Neurobiology named after our late patron, rugby league legend Rob Burrow CBE. The award means he can accelerate his work hunting for genes underpinning MND and reveal new avenues for treatment. 

The first poster hall session was in full swing this evening. Sponsored by Biogen, poster sessions give researchers opportunity to browse others’ science and explain their own in an informal, unstructured way. 

The posters show a summary of work, progress and results, and give researchers chance to share ideas and expertise with others working in similar fields.  

Talking of collaborations - this year for the first time we’re collecting Symposium Stories – these will focus on collaborations started at previous Symposia which have had real impact on people with MND.  

We’ll share those with you via our channels at a later date. 

Research at the interface of physiology and cell biology shines a light on MND  

We’ve just stepped out of this afternoon’s Clinical Electrophysiology and Imaging session, which included five talks from an international panel of neurologists based in the UK, US, Portugal, Italy and Iran. The session was opened by Professor Rob Brownstone, who talked about his research into the physiology of MND.

Professor Brownstone’s research bridges the clinical study of people with MND and knowledge of biological changes gained through modelling MND in the lab, ie creating controlled, artificial versions of MND so scientists can study how the disease develops and test new treatments without experimenting directly on patients. He spoke about the importance of researchers working together – for instance physiologists, who study how the body functions, and biologists, who dive deeper into the molecular and cellular mechanisms of disease. 

That collaboration is exactly what the Symposium is about!