MND-SMART opens in Glasgow

The trial will be based at the Queen Elizabeth University hospital in Glasgow and will welcome participants to the trial from across the NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde region.

Among the NHS boards in Scotland, NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde cares for the largest number of people living with MND.

The first trial centres opened in Edinburgh at the beginning of March and Dundee in August.

Those who have already registered online interest in taking part in MND-SMART who live in the NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde will be contacted by the Glasgow trial team over the coming months to discuss taking part.

“The MND-SMART trial launching in Glasgow is some good news at a time when there isn’t much around.  Ensuring the safety of people taking part in MND-SMART is the research team’s highest priority and we will follow all government requirements relating to Covid-19 and research. The pandemic and ensuring practices are covid compliant will impact how quickly people can be recruited to the trial but we are delighted to be able to start seeing participants.”

MND-SMART is a pioneering clinical trial in its reach and design that launched in January this year. The trial is recruiting hundreds of people living with MND across the UK to take part in tests of potential treatments.

Unlike typical clinical trials which test a single treatment at a time, MND-SMART is testing multiple drugs and so aims to speed up the time it takes to find medicines that can slow, stop, or reverse the progression of, MND.

The trial has been developed by people with MND and clinical trial experts from across the UK. The study is led by the Euan MacDonald Centre for MND Research at the University of Edinburgh.

MND-SMART is funded by the Euan MacDonald Centre, substantial private donations, MND Scotland and the My Name’5 Doddie Foundation.

Since the announcement of the trial’s launch in January this year, more than 1000 people with MND from across the UK have registered their interest in taking part in the trial.