Today on The Raw Nerve we spotlight our newly launched 2025 Incubator Grant round, which supports out-of-the-box ideas aimed at opening new directions in multiple sclerosis (MS) research. 

MS Australia has funded four exciting projects targeting MS research priorities – including causes and prevention, better treatments and cures via repair and regeneration of cells.

Join us on the Raw Nerve, as we delve into these exciting new research projects and talk with three of the researchers about their work.
Dr Laura Laslett from the Menzies Institute for Medical Research at the University of Tasmania is investigating whether smartwatches and the MySymptoMS app can effectively monitor sleep and symptoms in people with MS over extended periods. Dr Laslett is recruiting for participants and is keen to hear from people living with MS in Southern Tasmania via this link: Collecting better data on sleep in people with MS: Screening Survey

Dr Monokesh Sen from the Charles Perkins Centre, The University of Sydney is investigating whether macrophage-derived extracellular vesicles (MEVs), tiny messengers released by immune cells, can support myelin repair in MS. 

Dr David Stacey from the University of South Australia is leading a world-first Australian study using DNA to identify a person’s genetic risk of developing MS to understand how their immune system responds to a common virus linked to the disease. 

And joining with us to help unpack this work and its impact and that our of our fourth Incubator Grant Recipient, Dr Alastair Fortune, from the Menzies Institute for Medical Research at the University of Tasmania: Are brain vascular cells dysfunctional in MS?, and to discuss the MS Australia research program, is MS Australia’s newly appointed Head of Research Dr Tennille Luker.

Additional Glossary

• MS Australia Brain Bank
  
• 
  MS WIRE - MS Australia’s monthly newsletter
• Central nervous system - the brain, spinal cord and optic nerves
• PBMC - peripheral blood mononuclear cells
• Size exclusion chromatography – technique used to separate molecules based on their size
• Oligodendrocytes - the cell in the central nervous system that makes myelin