MS Research Flagship
Newsletter

The MS Research Flagship

The MS Research Flagship is a Flagship program of the University of Tasmania, College of Health and Medicine and was established from a long history of MS research at Menzies Institute for Medical Research. Menzies has proudly been at the forefront of research advancements in MS for twenty years. 

Understanding Multiple Sclerosis (MS) Free Online Course
Have you heard about the Understanding MS free online course? Understanding MS aims to improve understanding and awareness of MS around the world. Through this course, you can increase your knowledge of MS-related issues and, for those in the MS community, be empowered to create and contribute to personalised MS management plans. The course was recently ranked 10th out of 200 courses in Class Central’s Best Online Classes of All-Time list. If you’re interested in participating in the next Understanding MS Course in March 2021, you can sign up here (link).

May 50K 
This year the MS Research Flagship put forward a team to run or walk in the MS Research Australia (MSRA) May 50K fundraiser. The May 50K challenges people to walk or run 50 km in May to raise funds for vital MS research and leave MS where it belongs, behind us. The MS Research Flagship team had 35 members who ran or walked a total of 3070.26 km - the distance from Hobart to the Northern Territory! In total, they raised over $15,000 for vital MS research, and they came 5th out of the 441 workplace teams that participated. You can see the team's page here (link). 

The MS Research Flagship Team

MS Researcher, Alice Saul

Charlie, the paddle boarding Groodle

Researcher Spotlight: Alice Saul
Alice Saul has been a researcher at the Menzies Institute for Medical Research for 5 years. Her work is all about getting to the bottom of the relationship between diet and MS. 

One of the ways that people try to manage living with MS is through diet. Whether it be through modifying the food they eat or following an MS-specific diet, it's a common approach for many. However, when researching dietary food groups and individual foods in MS progression, it becomes clear that diet may have a role, but we are still unsure of how this knowledge fits together. MS Societies still only recommend sticking to the Australian Guidelines for Healthy Eating because the evidence base for any MS-specific advice for an overall diet is too low. 

This is where Alice comes in. She wants to further reduce this knowledge gap by examining diet in MS using the AusLong study – a group of people from around Australia who joined the study soon after they had initial symptoms suggesting they would develop MS, and who were then followed annually for 10 years. Alice will investigate whether indications of diet quality and diet inflammation are associated with relapses, disability progression, MRI brain imaging measures, fatigue, anxiety, and depression. 

When Alice isn't hard at work on this vital research, she's out paddle boarding with Charlie, a Groodle that doubles as a fish on weekends. Charlie is a very keen paddle boarder and has his very own shark fin life jacket. 

World MS Day
This year, the MS Research Flagship decided to do things a little differently for World MS Day. With rules around public events and social distancing in place, we took our World MS Day activities online. 

In the week before World MS Day, Dr Suzi Claflin hosted a text chat in the comments section of the Understanding MS Facebook page based on this year's World MS Day theme: connections. This chat gave people the chance to answer themed questions and ask their own in a safe, public forum. In total, we had over 120 comments, reactions and shares, and some great feedback from the community. We received such a positive reaction that we've decided to make it a regular feature of the page, so keep an eye out for the next one! 

On World MS Day, we released a video of MS community members discussing the importance of connections and staying connected. This video included President of MS Australia, Assoc. Professor Des Graham, Researcher Alice Saul and many others. You can find the video here (link).

President of MS Australia,
Assoc. Professor Des Graham

Consumer and Community Engagement Manager, Viv Jones 

Community Corner: Consumer and Community Reference Committee
Did you know that we have a Consumer and Community Reference Committee? The MS Research Flagship Consumer and Community Reference Committee gives members of the MS community the chance to have their say and, where appropriate, input into all current and future MS research activities undertaken by the MS Research Flagship and their Collaborators. If you'd like more information about the Consumer and Community Reference Committee, please email:
SM-MSResearch.Engagement@utas.edu.au 

MS Research Australia Fellowships
The MS Research Flagship received another boost of funding with two of our researchers receiving MS Research Australia Fellowships.

Dr Julie Campbell and Dr Kalina Makowiecki were both awarded Postdoctoral Fellowships of $180,000 for three years. These new fellowships highlight the range of MS research conducted by the Flagship.

Dr Campbell will be developing and testing health economics tool to help with the assessment of the financial and societal impact of MS and interventions that aim to improve quality of life or halt the disease. Dr Makowiecki is working on determining how losing nerve cell insulation in the brain causes memory problems in people living with MS.

These fellowships were part of $2.4 million in funding from MS Research Australia for grants commencing in January 2020.

Dr Julie Campbell

Dr Kalina Makowiecki

MS Research Flagship Clinical Trials Team Leader - Professor Bruce Taylor

Vital Funding for MS Trials
In July, the MS Research Flagship team received $850,000 in vital funding for MS Stem and clinical trials. This generous donation was from the Irene Phelps Charitable Trust.

The Irene Phelps Charitable Trust was established to carry out the wishes of the late MS Irene Phelps regarding her Estate. Ms Irene Phelps was an independent, passionate, and driven woman. She left school at 15, moved from northern Tasmania to Melbourne aged 17, travelled to London aged 19 and returned to Australia two years later to forge a successful career and later a prosperous property business.

$350,000 will be provided for MS Stem and will enable the MS Research Flagship team to complete the world’s first MS stem cell biobank.

$500,000 will be donated towards clinical trials and will be used to continue our ground-breaking research into myelin repair and examine the safety and efficacy of three distinct myelin repair approaches.

NHMRC Funding for InforMS
Our new patient-centred digital health care tool - InforMS - has received $1.4 million in funding through the prestigious National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Partnership Projects program. 

The MS Research Flagship, in partnership with MS Research Australia, MS Australia, Kiandra IT, Atlassian and others are developing InforMS to help people living with multiple sclerosis (MS) better manage their symptoms. This digital patient-centred health care tool will create a paradigm shift in MS self-care, clinical care and research and is part of the Stop and Reverse MS mission.

The information collected by the InforMS tool will be invaluable for future MS research and treatment. From better insights into the day-to-day impacts of MS to the effectiveness of treatment, this tool gives us access to data that was once beyond the reach of researchers, clinicians and people living with MS.

To find out more, read the media release here (link).

Dr Yuan Zhou

NHMRC Investigator Grant
This year, Dr Yuan Zhou was awarded an NHMRC investigator grant for his work on Elucidating the Genetic architecture of MS to influence improvements in health outcomes.

Modifiable Lifestyle Factors and MS
In August this year, MS Research Australia released a fantastic guide on modifiable lifestyle factors and MS. This guide, for both professionals and people living with MS, included contributions from Menzies researchers Professor Bruce Taylor, Dr Amin Zarghami, Associate Professor Ingrid van der Mei and Ms Lara Marie Pangan Lo. 

You can find the guide here (link). 

Website Update
The multiple sclerosis page on the Menzies Institute for Medical Research website has been redesigned. It now includes updated information and a summary of the MS Research Flagship. You can take a look here (link).