Euan MacDonald Centre at the 2024 MND Association Symposium

The International Symposium is the biggest annual conference dedicated to ALS and MND research. Over the next few days delegates from around the world will gather to share new understanding of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and motor neuron disease.

The Euan MacDonald Centre for MND Research is proud to provide registration bursaries for our Euan MacDonald Centre early-career research members. This enables them to present their work either in a presentation or an academic poster. We are delighted that the following Euan MacDonald Centre members will be attending in person having been awarded a bursary:

Early-career researchers at the 35th ALS/MND Symposium

Andrea Salzinger

Postdoctoral researcher in Dr Bhuvaneish Selvaraj's lab, Andrea will give an oral presentation 'TDP-43 loss of function induces neuromuscular junction degeneration in a human stem cell derived neuromuscular assembloid model' (C38). 

Hannah Smith

Hannah is a postdoctoral researcher in Prof Tom Gillingwater's lab in Edinburgh. Hannah will be presenting an oral presention 'Comparison of the motor neuron translatome in mouse models of ALS and SMA reveals defects specific to protein translation' (C116).

Marcus Keatinge

A postdoctoral researcher in Prof Lyons and Chandran labs, Marcus will be presenting two posters at this year's symposium: 'C9ORF72 Deficiency Results in Neurodegeneration in the Zebrafish Retina' (IVV-31), and 'Deconstructing the roles of oligodendrocytes and neurons in mediating TDP43-related MND neurodegeneration' (IVV-32).

Orjona Stella Taso

Orjona is a PhD student under the supervision of Dr Chris Sibley. Orjona's poster in the Human Cell Biology and Pathology section is 'Novel TDP-43 aptamers identify early aggregation events in C9orf72 mutant human motor neurons' (HCB-13). 

Orjona also has a poster in the Disease Stratification and Phenotyping of Patients section: 'Distinct inflammatory signatures associated with astrocyte TDP-43 burden in C9orf72 and sporadic ALS' (DSP-17).

Harriet McHale-Owen

A PhD student in Professor Tom Gillingwater's lab, Harriet willl be presenting a poster in the Pre-clinical Therapeutic Strategy section. Her poster is called 'Exploring increased phosphoglycerate kinase 1 (PGK1) activity as a potential therapeutic targeting MND' (TST-11).

Isaac Chau

Isaac is a research nurse and PhD student at the Anne Rowling Regenerative Neurology Clinic. Isaac will be presenting his poster 'A retrospective comparative study of MND care and research participation in Scotland from 2015- 2023 based on the NICE guidelines (2016)' (CMS-39).

Principal Investigators presentations

We are also pleased to share that several Euan MacDonald Centre Principal Investigators will be co-chairing sessions and presenting:

Prof Sharon Abrahams

Sharon will co-chair the Cognitive and Behavioural Change session on Saturday 7th December. She will also be giving an oral presentation 'The use of support strategies to improve mental capacity to make treatment decisions in ALS' (C95).

Prof Jenna Gregory

Jenna is co-chairing the Cell Biology and Pathology session on Saturday 7th December as well as giving an oral presentation 'Pre-symptomatic pathological TDP-43 aggregation is a common feature in peripheral, non-central nervous system tissues in people with ALS' (C72).

Jenna is also presenting a poster in the Tissue Biomarkers section named 'TDP-43 pathology is a cross- cutting pathological event that occurs across neurodegenerative diseases and with normal ageing' (BIO-11).

Dr Chris Henstridge

Chris will be co-chairing the Symposium's Glia session on Friday 6th December.

Dr Caroline McHutchison

Caroline will give an oral presentation 'Prodomal mild cognitive impairment in ALS and FTD: A revised framework' (C87).

We wish all our Euan MacDonald Centre early-career research members and Principal Investigators a successful symposium.

Useful links

MND Association 35th ALS Symposium website (external website)

Research themes at the Euan MacDonald Centre: Research themes

For academics: explore our research