The funding includes a $2 million National Research Infrastructure grant to establish a world-first National Neuroproteomics Facility (NNPF), a $1 million Discovery Grant to investigate harmful protein clusters in nerve cells, and a $550,000 Drug Development Grant to explore repurposing diazepam as a potential treatment for MND.
Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research) Professor Sakkie Pretorius congratulated the grant recipients and says this recognition reflects Macquarie University’s global leadership in MND research and clinical care.
“Around 800 Australians are diagnosed with this rapidly progressing and ultimately terminal neurological disease every year, not to mention many thousands around the world,” says Professor Pretorius.
“At Macquarie, we are committed to doing all we can to achieve our vision of a world without MND.”
The National Neuroproteomics Facility (NNPF), to be based at Macquarie, is set to revolutionise research in MND and related neurodegenerative diseases.
Proteomics is the measurement and analysis of the thousands of proteins produced by a cell or tissue using powerful tools such as mass spectrometry and protein separation techniques.
Proteins are a particular focus of MND research, as abnormally formed and misfolded proteins are seen clumping together inside affected nerve cells (neurones), disrupting their normal function and eventually leading to cell death.
Applying proteomics techniques and tools to neurones and brain tissue – neuroproteomics – will help give researchers a bird’s-eye view of MND processes, says Associate Professor Albert Lee of Macquarie’s Motor Neuron Disease Research Centre, who will be primary chief investigator of NNPF.
“Neuroproteomics gives us the ability to look across the complete set of proteins in the neurone or brain tissue and provides the functional context for what's going on in the cell,” he says.
(L–R) Associate Professor Albert Lee, Professor Julie Atkin and Associate Professor Marco Morsch
Associate Professor Lee, who has led proteomics within the MND Research Centre since 2014, says NNPF will further empower MND researchers by providing a dedicated, streamlined and specialised proteomics platform.
“We want to be able to help researchers not only to identify therapeutic targets and accelerate the development of clinical trials, but also to find biomarkers for MND progression,” he says.
The FightMND Discovery Grant, valued at $1 million over three years, will support research to be led by Macquarie University’s Associate Professor Marco Morsch, in collaboration with researchers at King’s College London. The team will investigate how the proteins Annexin A11 (ANXA11) and TDP-43 act together to form harmful clusters in neurones in MND.
Using human brain and spinal cord tissue, the project will investigate whether certain genetic changes in ANXA11 drive the disease process, potentially leading to new treatments that stop or even reverse the harmful clumping of these proteins.
The researchers will also look for early warning signs or biomarkers that could help clinicians diagnose MND earlier and monitor its progression.
The FightMND Drug Development Grant of $550,000 will fund a project investigating whether diazepam – a drug commonly known by the trade name Valium – could be repurposed as a treatment for MND.
Prescribed since the 1960s to treat anxiety and as a muscle relaxant, diazepam is known to inhibit the electrical firing of hyperexcitable motor neurones, which become disordered in MND.
Using mouse models of MND, a team led by Macquarie University’s Professor Julie Atkin will examine whether diazepam at doses well below those associated with common side-effects could be protective in patients with MND.