With one year delay, this usually bi-annual meeting for researchers in the field of MS will take place 7-8 July 2022 in the popular waterfront city of Swansea, and I’m looking forward to it.
“New beginnings” was our sub-heading for the meeting, but that seems to have dropped, at least temporarily, though in spirit it remains our motto: Whilst learning to live with COVID-19, the UK MS research community, with some select overseas contributions, looks beyond the pandemic, bearing in mind it’s not over, particularly for pwMS who are highly vulnerable as so eloquently described by the MS Society’s ambassador Trishna Bharadia and her sister Anisha on the beep (https://twitter.com/TrishnaBharadia/status/1495886700588978178)
However, plenty of MS research has happened ignoring, related to, or in parallel to COVID-19 since the last meeting of this type in 2019, and #MSFrontiers2022 will be a showcase – your showcase, provided you submit your abstract(s) by 28th of March – for the latest results & ideas in the field.
In principal, it’s a face2face meeting, however some content will be available online
So, go to the website, submit, sign up: https://www.mssociety.org.uk/research/for-researchers/ms-frontiers
See you in Swansea !
Disclaimer: The opinions expressed here are those of the author and nobody else.
@KlausSchmierer
Conference topics
– Risk factors – are we getting closer to preventing MS?
– What’s new in imaging?
– Tackling remyelination and neuroprotection
– Trials and therapeutics – are we tackling progression from every angle?
– Glia – active players in MS
– Shaping MS care for the future
As someone who has had MS for two decades, this all looks a lot like Groundhog Day. I’m sure conferences back in the early 2000s were covering issues such as remyelination and neuroprotection (I recall the NMSS Promise 2010 – never came to anything). In the last 18 months or so we have seen several remyelination trials deliver duds. Will anything positive come out of the MS Frontiers conference for people with MS today or will the participants turn their focus to the next MS conference – ECTRIMS? There must be a better way to come up with effective treatments for this grim disease ie treatments to stop the ongoing damage. These conferences only appear to provide an opportunity to catch up with old mates and display fancy posters that never explain what MS actually is or how it can be halted.
I think one thing we can be in no doubt of is that whatever we or anybody else does will never be enough for you.
Now you’re entitled to your opinion and we appreciate that progress will never be fast enough but progress there has been and it will continue. Perhaps if the powers that be had paid more attention to us (if I may be immodest for a moment) that progress might not only be further advanced but also time wasted on approaches (naming no names) that were never likely to work in the real world of MS rather than the lab might have been avoided and resources better focused elsewhere.
MD2,
My friend is 57 and is now operating an electric wheelchair with one finger. I’m 55 and packed up work 5 years ago because of mobility issues. Yet we keep being told “there’s never been a better time to get MS”, “MS research has never been more exciting” (see U.K. MS website).
The NMSS has spent over $1 billion on research. This is their words (not mine): “Our Vision is a World Free of MS. We are a driving force of MS research and treatment to stop disease progression, restore function, and end MS forever.”
The UK MS Society has spent £225 million on research with the aim of “a world free from the effects of MS. And we’re getting closer.”
My aunt died of MS in her early 50s some 25 years ago. I don’t shy away from asking questions that others don’t go near. There should be some accountability for how this money has been used and why only pharma, neurologists and MS researchers are doing well from this disease.
MS Frontiers is another example of a nice back slapping event which will have no direct positive impact on the lives of MSers today. It will set up research which will deliver something in the usual 10 year timeframe (but never actually delivers).
I’m not pointing a finger at you MD2. But I have to ask what the hell the MS centres in Cambridge, Oxford, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Bristol, Imperial, UCL….. are doing. We’ve had 75 years of MS research yet are now being told that relapses are not the real MS! If you had this disease and felt its impact, you might better understand why I’m so pissed off with the merry go round that is the world of MS research.
How can one disagree with your assessment. Myself and many others are painfully aware of how protracted almost everything goes in MS Research. All I can say is, whether successful or not, those writing on this Blog are driven by a quest for real positive change, be it the people in the lab, those running clinical trials, and the clinical service team doing their best to provide a responsive, comprehensive and equitable service.
Very thoughtful responses MD2 and Prof. K.
Thank you so much for all that you and your team does. It is much very much appreciated.
I think I know which person to blame, the one who misled you relapses are not the real MS when the person itself has no clue.
MS Frontiers is an opportunity for UK researchers to meet and talk and plan…it used to be simple meeting organised by the researchers
These conferences only appear to provide an opportunity to catch up with old mates….its goodto talk…That’s what conferences areall about