Institute scientists awarded MRC grant

Published: 29 October 2020

Professor Susan Barnett and co-investigator Dr Susan Lindsay have been awarded a Medical Research Council grant to continue developing heparin mimetics as a therapy for CNS disease and injury.

A composite image showing both Prof Barnett and Dr Lindsay side by side but in two separate images with a divider in between

Professor Susan Barnett and co-investigator Dr Susan Lindsay have been awarded a Medical Research Council grant to continue developing heparin mimetics as a therapy for CNS disease and injury.

The work extends a collaboration with Professor Carl Goodyear, Professor Jerry Turnbull (University of Liverpool) and Professor Markus Kipp (University of Rostock) to develop this novel therapeutic, which mimics heparin sulphates on the cell surface and in the extracellular matrix.

They have shown previously that these mimetics promote myelination, neurite outgrowth and dampen astrocytosis in vitro and that they also stimulate repair in animal models of demyelination.

This grant will look at the feasibility of novel lower molecular forms that should have enhanced bioactivity in vivo, which may help further translate these mimetics into the clinic for the treatment of CNS repair.


First published: 29 October 2020