Inaugural Betty Cuthbert

Postdoctoral Fellowship - 2006-2009 

Dr Helmut Butzkueven’s research for four years, funded by the Trish Multiple Sclerosis Research Foundation and NHMRC Betty Cuthbert Postdoctoral Fellowship, was aimed at identifying some of the natural repair processes and assess whether treatments designed to enhance naturally occurring repair may provide additional treatment benefit.  The key interest in this respect is MS-related axonal injury. Axons, the cables transmitting electricity between cells of the nervous system do not regenerate when cut (trans-sected) by autoimmune damage, but not all axons in areas of damage die.  

Dr Butzkueven fulfilled the two main aims of this Fellowship. Firstly, together with his collaborators, he was able to directly measure axon damage in mice using a special MRI scanning technique known as diffusion scanning. The next step he undertook confirmed these findings in people with MS and therefore paved the way for development of new MS treatments.  

Secondly, he confirmed that the neuroprotective drug LIF, which enhances naturally occurring brain defences, directly protects both myelin and axons from immune damage in the MS mouse model. As a result of this and prior work, LIF will be developed as a treatment for MS.