The power of the Ice Bucket Challenge

The value of the ‘Ice Bucket Challenge’ fundraising campaign will be demonstrated at an Edinburgh Science Festival event.

This is a great opportunity to show the public how we’re tackling diseases like MND.

One of the research teams to benefit from the multi-million pound drive - based at the University - will discuss how its research projects have benefited from last year’s global support.

Dr Tara Spires-Jones of will be joined by Prof Siddharthan Chandran, Director of the Euan MacDonald Centre.

Together they are examining how brain cells become damaged in people with motor neuron disease, and are working to find treatments that could repair them.

Fightback campaign

Also at the event will be Gordon Aikman, a young former political researcher who was diagnosed with MND last year and is now campaigning for increased funding for MND research and care.

In under twelve months, his campaign has fought to double the number of specialist MND nurses in Scotland, and raised over £250,000.

I'm excited to show people how the Ice Bucket challenge genuinely impacted scientific research. Until recently, I had been focussed on the science of dementia. Now thanks to these public donations I can bring a new lab technique to the field of MND. We are genuinely hopeful it will help to deliver new insights to the disease.