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With your support and a state-of-the-art camera, Professor Alexander Klistorner hopes to detect secondary progressive MS sooner.

Your generosity has helped launch innovative new research investigating which mechanisms in the brain and spinal cord cause the development of secondary progressive multiple sclerosis (SPMS).

Professor Alexander Klistorner and his team will use state-of-the-art neuroimaging techniques, partly developed in their own lab, to enhance our understanding of what drives the progression of MS.

Their research focuses on permanently demyelinated nerve fibres inside chronic lesions and “slow burning” – or low-grade inflammation – around the lesion edge.

“Slow burning” inflammation significantly damages normal brain tissue over time. And it has been suggested that that permanent demyelination makes some nerve fibres more vulnerable to physiological stress.

This is an understudied area of MS research. By supporting it, you could help build our knowledge of the role of “slow burning” inflammation in the progression towards SPMS, which could lead to exciting new treatments that could slow down disease progression.

We will keep you updated as it unfolds.

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