One of the central objectives of this blog is to keep our readers up to date with current and future research into multiple sclerosis.

One of the key needs, as far as we can see, is for therapies that focus on myelin repair and slow or stop the progression of disability in multiple sclerosis.

Earlier this year the UK’s MS Society announce such a research project. They are are co-funding a 3-year myelin repair project costing £405,000.

The project is one of eight that are being jointly funded through the British Council’s regenerative medicine initiative and BIRAX (Britain Israel Research and Academic Exchange Partnership). In fact there are a number of different projects also looking diabetes, heart disease, Parkinson’s and liver disease as well as multiple sclerosis.

According to the MS Society the collaboration of Dr Mark Kotter at the University of Cambridge and Professor Shlomo Rotshenker at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, the project aims to identify novel ways of promoting myelin sheath repair and preventing nerve cell death.

They will focus on removing the debris built up during myelin damage, and stimulating remyelination of exposed nerve fibres. By doing so they could be able to undo some of the damage cause by demyelination which is itself a cause of multiple sclerosis.

Michelle Mitchell, Chief Executive of MS Society said: “We know that people with progressive MS desperately want treatments that can slow, stop or reverse MS progression. Collectively, we are able to fund more projects compared to if we were working in isolation and we hope this will provide us with vital clues about the condition and help us discover potential new treatments.”

To find out more about current MS Society supported research by going here http://www.mssociety.org.uk/ms-research/projects/cure.

So what do you think about this research?  Will it be of benefit to you or a loved one?  Tell us what you think in the comments section below!

Thanks very much in advance!