Natalie Payne – Application

of Stem Cells to Treat MS      

Trish Foundation Postgraduate Research Scholar Natalie Payne has completed her Research Project at the Monash Immunology and Stem Cell Laboratories, Monash University.  

Natalie has been working diligently investigating the therapeutic potential of different types of neural stem cells to treat MS. Natalie has performed extensive characterisation studies using a number of different stem cell lines, an important prerequisite for therapeutic application of stem cell-based therapies in humans.  

Administration of these stem cells to mice with a chronic progressive or a relapsing remitting MS-like disease resulted in suppression of both the clinical and pathological signs of disease. Through these studies Natalie has shown that tissue-specific stem cells can differ considerably in terms of their stem cell-like properties and therapeutic effect in vivo.  

By exploiting tissue-specific stem cells as vehicles for delivery of the anti-inflammatory molecule Natalie was able to prevent development of chronic progressive EAE.  Natalie’s research in 2010 focused on the biological processes behind this effect as well as examining the fate of transplanted stem cells using live animal imaging techniques.  

In recognition of her growing expertise and contribution to the field, Natalie has authored two review articles that describe the application of stem cells for the treatment of MS.