Progress Reports

Please click here to read Dr Ben Emery's Progress Report

Please click here to read Jason Mackenzie's Progress Report

Breaking news 11th August 2011

Today’s breaking news published in the prestigious scientific journal, Nature, is incredibly exciting for all those involved in the MS community, giving great additional hope to people living with MS.    

One gene had been discovered in 2006 and the study has confirmed the presence of up to 57 MS genes.      

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To see the ABC's 7.30 aired 11th August 2011, please click here

Incubator Grant Hatches Further Funds  

In 2010, Dr Fabienne Brilot-Turville and Dr Russell Dale, based at The Children's Hospital, Westmead, received a $26,000 incubator grant from the Trish Multiple Sclerosis Research Foundation to study biomarkers in early paediatric demyelination.

In a short period of time the team of young researchers, with complementary skills in clinical neuroscience and basic science immunology, have made rapid progress in the understanding of paediatric MS.  Their research has already resulted in a remarkable four publications in peer-reviewed scientific journals.  ‘We are grateful for the support of The Trish Multiple Sclerosis Research Foundation’, explained Dr Brilot-Turville.

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Dr Russell Dale and Dr Fabienne Brilot-Turville

Proteomics in MS research Progress

Proteomics is the study of all the proteins that are activated and deactivated, in a particular biological situation and can amount to studying 1000s of proteins in one go.

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Funds multiplied yet again

In 2010 the Trish MS Research Foundation started funding Dr Ben Emery’s MS research project at the University of Melbourne. The project looked at a ‘master’ genetic switch that can potentially regulate myelination and repair neural damage caused during MS.

In 2010 Dr Ben Emery was awarded $150,000 by MSRA, funded by the Trish Foundation, to undertake this research and has now been successful in gaining an NHMRC grant of $555,185 for 2011 onwards for the direct continuation of this work.

"The MSRA/Trish Foundation support has been vital for getting the research project up and running," said Dr Emery.  "The exciting results obtained with their support served as the basis for getting the NHMRC grant up, which will in turn fund the continuation of this research over the coming years."        

Dr Ben Emery

Multiple Sclerosis Tissue Proteomics         

Dr Michael Barnett and Professor John Prineas, 2009 Charcot Recipient for a lifetime contribution to MS research, have developed an exciting new method to study proteins from brain tissue, specifically targeting MS lesions. As a result, the technique was applied and resulting in highly reproducible results. The identification of proteins that change to cause MS lesions may lead to targeted, more effective treatments for MS.  

Dr Barnett and Professor Prineas are recipients in the Trish Foundation’s 2009 round of funding and, having produced better than expected preliminary results, additional funding was approved for this important Research Project.

Professor John Prineas

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.

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Inaugural Betty Cuthbert Postdoctoral Fellowship   

Dr Helmut Butzkueven’s research over the last 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. 

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Helmet Butzkueven, Mark Slee and Betty Cuthbert at the launch of the Betty Cuthbert Fellowships and Scholarships

A Remarkable Day in the history of MS Research

The Australian MS Genetics Consortium, known as AusGene (which subsequently become ANZgene) was well underway, with the successful ARC linkage grant approved, when 30 July 2007 became a remarkable day in the history of research into Multiple Sclerosis and in particular for Australia’s part in unravelling the complex genetic factors in this crippling disorder.

The first MS gene (HLA) was found back in the 1970s. Definitive evidence of the second MS gene took 30 years.

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Professor Graeme Stewart, one of the principal investigators

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. 

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Genetics Research

In 2009 the ANZgene Consortium, made up of more than 40 investigators from 11 institutions in Australia and New Zealand, discovered two new locations of genes which will help to unravel the causes of MS and other autoimmune diseases. Their findings were published in the prestigious journal Nature Genetics.
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Young Aussie Sheds Light on MS Gene

A young Australian scientist has added to the debate over a genetic variant thought to increase MS susceptibility.

Attila Szvetko’s research was funded by a Trish Multiple Sclerosis Research Foundation Postgraduate Research Scholarship.
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Stem Cells

Stem cells are a unique resource, providing in principle access to unlimited quantities of cells that can give rise to a variety of more specialised cells. Natalie Payne (pictured in the lab with Professor Claude Bernard) was a Trish MS Research Foundation Scholar at Monash University investigating the therapeutic potential of adult stem cells.
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Antibodies in MS

Dr Judith Greer and Professor Michael Pender’s Research Project which commenced in 2004 looked at the role of antibodies in MS.

“Thanks to the assistance of the grant from the Trish MS Research Foundation for this project, we were able to generate sufficient preliminary data to successfully apply for further funds from the NHMRC to continue this project looking at the role of antibodies in MS.”
- Dr Judith Greer, Neuroimmunology Research Unit, School of Medicine, The University of Queensland