Drug breakthrough could ‘substantially slow progression’ of MND, scientists say

Dr Mike Rogers, director of research and innovation at MND Association, said: “This research is at an early stage, but is another encouraging sign that we are making steps towards transforming the treatment landscape for MND.

“MND is exceedingly complex, affecting each person in different ways. That’s what makes finding effective treatments so challenging.

“There is an urgent need to accelerate drug research on multiple fronts and pursue many different avenues to achieve meaningful breakthroughs.

“One way the MND Association is contributing to this vital work is through our support of the Longitude Prize on ALS, a £7.5 million global challenge prize to incentivise AI-based approaches to transform drug discovery for the treatment of ALS, the most common form of MND.

“In the last decade, copious amounts of ALS data has been generated as a result of public fundraising.

“The Longitude Prize on ALS has brought together records of more than 10,000 people with ALS for scientists to access, using AI to identify potential treatment routes at a speed that has never been possible before.

“The rapid advance of AI is opening up exciting opportunities for the development of effective ALS treatments – potentially enabling scientists and researchers to turn small steps towards impactful medicines into giant strides.”