Bulletin #0106
Funding for multiple sclerosis to boost research capacity Funding success and new fellowships have started the year on a positive note for the MS Research Flagship. In the latest round of Australian Research Council’s highly competitive grants, Menzies is able to build on its extensive neuroscience research with a $428,000 grant to understand the link between changes to insulating brain cells and learning. In the brain, nerve cells transmit electrical signals more quickly and reliably when they are insulated.
Associate Professor Kaylene Young, Dr Carlie Cullen and Dr Nick Blackburn will be looking at the signals that direct insulating cells to adapt and support life-long learning. The project is focused on how to solve the challenge of becoming more forgetful as we get older, which almost all of us will face. People can also suffer from conditions where the brain can deteriorate at
any age and this project will give us clues on how we can counteract that happening. Three researchers have also received grants from MS Australia’s biggest ever funding round. Professor Ingrid van der Mei and Associate Professor
The project is focused on how to solve the challenge of becoming more forgetful as we get older
Kaylene Young have both received fellowships of $650,000 to continue their work leading teams within the MS Flagship progressing the clinical care, self-care and treatment of people living with MS and aiming to understand the development of the disease. Dr Kalina Makowiecki and Associate Professor Kaylene Young have been awarded more than $428,000 for a project to understand how nerve cell communication changes to identify treatments that halt disease progression. Support: From left, Dr Nick Blackburn, Dr Kalina Makowiecki and Professor Ingrid van der Mei.
Menzies Bulletin
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