Neuroscience team makes a splash for MND

Neuroscience team makes a splash for MND

Associate Professor Tracey Dickson's neuroscience team at the Menzies Research Institute Tasmania made a big splash in the Medical  Science Precinct by taking part in the Icebucket Challenge to raise awareness of Motor Neurone Disease (MND).

Associate Professor Tracey Dickson's neuroscience team at the Menzies Research Institute Tasmania made a big splash in the Medical  Science Precinct by taking part in the Icebucket Challenge to raise awareness of Motor Neurone Disease (MND).

MND is the name given to a group of diseases in which the nerve cells (neurones) controlling the muscles that enable us to move, speak, breathe and swallow undergo degeneration and die. Associate Professor Dickson's team is looking at the mechanisms at work in motor neurone disease,  its causes and whether it begins in the brain or the muscles. The team is investigating the hypothesis that it could be due to the over-activation of motor neurones.

It takes a community . . .

Menzies neuroscience researchers have received some wonderful support from community groups in the past few months. On top of $25,000 donated in April, Parkinson's Tasmania donated $20,000 in September to support research into the causes of Parkinson's disease.

In August the family and friends of Brendan "Paddy" Dwyer organised 'Pig in the Pub for Paddy', a fundraiser at the New Sydney Hotel in Hobart. Mr Dwyer died of motor neurone disease earlier this year, and on Sunday August 17 his family and friends filled the New Sydney for an afternoon of Irish music and socialising as a way of remembering Mr Dwyer.

With Associate Professor Tracey Dickson and her team there to answer questions about MND, plus raffles, auctions and a generous donation of takings from the New Sydney proprietors, $12,000 was raised to support MND research at Menzies.

Pictured: Associate Professor Tracey Dickson with Brendan Dwyer's friend Steven Bourke, who organised 'Pig in a Pub for Paddy', and members of Mr Dwyer's family.

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