Jason Mackenzie onto
MS
Genetics
Trish Foundation Postgraduate Research Scholar Jason
Mackenzie continues his MS Genetics work in the Genomics Research Centre,
Griffith University.
Jason
is interrogating five genomic regions that have been identified as potentially
containing MS susceptibility genes. His
approach utilises a comprehensive screening technology and techniques to
identify MS-specific gene expression differences.
Gene
expression is the process by which information from a gene is used to make a
functional gene product. By identifying
the gene expression differences in MS and non-MS brain and blood tissues, it
may be possible to inform the development of new approaches to diagnosis and
treatment of MS.
In
the laboratory Jason has undertaken laboratory investigations examining the
regions of several sex hormone genes for association with MS within an
Australian case-control population.
Within the regions of these sex hormone genes, Jason has examined three
markers that have yielded very interesting results that may have implications
for People with MS. Further markers are presently being investigated in these
sex hormone genes and once completed the results will be swiftly submitted for
publication.
Jason
has also been learning from the Director of the Dutch Brain Bank to classify
the different lesion types in MS affected brain samples, and interpret the
clinical data associated with each sample, subsequently starting work on the
brain tissue samples.
Stemming
from this research, Jason has played an important role in sharing new insights
from this research with the world by publishing two scientific papers.