A rising star in brain research, Dr Molly Swanson has recently been granted $877,000 for research into motor neurone disease.
Dr Molly Swanson’s experience of mothering a child with a life-threatening condition fuels her passion for researching brain diseases.
The scientist from University of Auckland’s Centre for Brain Research has a two-year-old son, James, who has a rare genetic disorder, LCHADD.
“My son’s condition has changed my perspective on research.
“I want him to have a good life and that’s what I hope for everyone I do my research for.
“I want people with degenerative brain disorders and their families to see that people are working towards healing their disease and to have hope,” says Swanson.
The 32-year-old is a rising star in the brain research field.
She recently received nearly $517,000 from Auckland Medical Research Foundation and $360,000 from the Marsden Fund for research over the next three to four years on motor neurone disease.
Her “synergistic” research projects will look at a genetic form of the disease and types that strike people with no family history of the disorder.
Motor neurone disease affects about three in 100,000 people in New Zealand. About 150 New Zealanders a year die of the disease, one of the highest mortality rates in the world.
As the name of the disorder suggests, it causes the death of motor neurons, which are responsible for movement.
Early symptoms include finding it hard to lift your feet or grip objects with your hands. As the disease progresses, patients can suffer difficulty moving, breathing and swallowing.
To try to find a way to slow the progression of the disease, Swanson is looking at immune cells in the brain called microglia, which typically help heal brain injuries and diseases.
Her groundbreaking research has shown microglia suffer something akin to caregiver fatigue – they suddenly turn toxic and start having a harmful impact on motor neurons.
She will zero in a tiny, but “bossy” molecule in microglia that appears to be responsible for making the helpful cells flip into toxic mode.
By snipping out a section of DNA in microglia, she hopes to delete the code that creates the bossy molecules that spark the harmful change.
“We want to reverse the changes in microglia and restore them to their helpful function,” she says.
If the experiment proves effective, she will start searching drug libraries for a medicine that produces a similar result.
This drug could be used alongside other treatments that are being developed to stop the disease killing motor neurons.
“Even if you make the neurons healthy again, the microglia are still toxic, so you need therapies for both.”
Swanson, the team of Centre for Brain Research pharmacologist Dr Amy Smith and PhD student Sonalani Shandil were the first in New Zealand to grow microglia in the lab from stem cells.
The pluripotent stem cells, which can become nearly any cell type in the body, are derived from human skin and blood samples. These have been donated by patients who have a genetic mutation associated with motor neurone disease and by healthy controls.
Human brain tissue donated to the Neurological Foundation Brain Bank and a London brain bank have also been vital for Swanson’s research.
“Brain tissue is the most precious resource, because it’s the actual disease in humans, not a model.
“But lab-grown microglia have the advantage of showing the disease in action.
“They allow us to see how microglia change over time and what occurs when they flip from helpers to harmers.”
Swanson has organised events to give people with motor neurone disease a chance to talk with scientists about what they want from research.
“There’s something beautiful about meeting the people the research is for.
“It makes it more human and reminds you why you’re doing it.”
