Congratulations to motor neuron disease (MND) researchers Dr Holly Spence and Dr Katie Hanna who have been awarded prestigious Motor Neurone Disease Association (MNDA) Non-Clinical Fellowships.
Both recipients are based in Prof Jenna Gregory's group at the IMS.
MNDA Non-Clinical Fellowship grants are designed to nurture the best post-doctoral researchers and develop the MND researcher leaders of the future.
Dr Holly Spence’s work will explore fast field-cycling approaches to develop novel, accessible MRI biomarkers for diagnostics and stratification in MND in collaboration with Dr Lionel Broche (University of Aberdeen) and Dr Jonathan Ling (Columbia University, USA), and how ferritin, which is a specific form of iron stored in the body, can be measured by MRI and used to identify and group different types of MND.
Holly will be focusing on paired precision therapeutics with the hope of offering more targeted treatments in MND. Dr Katie Hanna’s work is investigating the skin as a biomarker for MND could significantly improve translational success and open the door to earlier, more effective intervention.
Katie’s work on presymptomatic diagnostics, detecting signs of disease years before symptoms appear, has the potential to be truly transformative for MND. Katie will be working in collaboration with Dr Karen Faulds (University of Strathclyde) and Prof Nick Stone (University of Exeter)Dr Marta Vallejo (Heriot Watt University) and Dr Alexander Thompson (Oxford MND centre).
Prof Jenna Gregory is also collaborative sponsor to other MNDA non-clinical fellowship awardee Dr Heather Marriot based at the Sheffield Institute for Translational Neuroscience (SITraN) - with University of Aberdeen-linked awards for 3/6 of the MNDA non-clinical fellows, the future looks bright for MND/ALS research here in Aberdeen. MNDA research blog introducing the 2026 Non-Clinical Fellows Prof Jenna Gregory’s research group website