More than $30 million in grants for motor neurone disease research will support 69 projects across Australia, following a record fundraising effort linked to the legacy of AFL great Neale Daniher.
Daniher, a former Australian of the Year, died in May after living with the debilitating condition for 13 years. He co-founded Fight MND in 2014.
One Sydney research team, led by Associate Professor Emma Devenney, will investigate whether disturbed sleep could be an early sign of the disease.
Devenney said the aim was to identify motor neurone disease before patients developed irreversible symptoms. Governor-General Sam Mostyn, who has taken part in the Big Freeze fundraiser, met with the researcher.
“We’re really looking to see how can we identify this disease before people develop symptoms that are irreversible,” Devenney said.
Ms Mostyn said she hoped the latest funding would ultimately lead to a cure.
“I think it’s in Neale’s memory that one day we’ll be able to say that the money raised by good people all around the country, great communities, will find that cure,” she said.
In Brisbane, Daniher’s widow Jan met Associate Professor Shyuan Ngo, whose project will examine the signals cells use to communicate in an effort to identify those involved in motor neurone disease.
“We’re trying to figure out whether or not we can pick out the signals that are causing MND, so that we can target those signals,” Ngo said.
Former Melbourne Demons captain Nathan Jones, who was coached by Daniher, visited Professor Peter Williams at the Centre for Eye Research in East Melbourne. Researchers there will test whether drugs being developed to prevent optic nerve degeneration in glaucoma could also be effective against MND.
“We’ve been developing drugs for glaucoma to stop optic nerve degeneration, and the drugs that we’re developing here should be effective in MND as well,” Williams said.
Jones said the research could offer a way forward, while Jan Daniher said her husband would have been delighted by the developments.
“I think he’d be up there with a big smile on his face, but he’d be watching every step of the way, don’t worry about that,” she said.
