Personal experiences of people with Motor Neurone Disease (MND) and their carers can now be heard online on DIPEx, the award-winning patient website based on Oxford University research.

Researchers at the Institute of Psychiatry, led by Professor Chris Shaw, have published new research in Science which heralds a significant advance in motor neurone disease (MND). They have shown that the ‘TDP-43’ protein is directly toxic to motor neurones and causes degeneration of these cells.

Newly launched nerve cells in a growing embryo must chart their course to distant destinations, and many of the means they use to navigate have yet to surface.

Scientists have discovered a causal link between the gene for a small protein involved in the formation of blood vessels and the development of some forms of Motor Neurone Disease.

Research by Renee Theiss, Jason Kuo and C J Heckman, which has just been published in The Journal of Physiology, throws light on how information is processed in the Central Nervous System (CNS) to drive movement. The findings are relevant to understanding mechanisms underlying movement and disorders such as spinal cord injury and motor neurone disease (ALS).