SHEFFIELD INSTITUTE FOR TRANSLATIONAL NEUROSCIENCE
Since 2010, The Sheffield Institute for Translational Neuroscience (SITraN) has been harnessing the most exciting developments in neuroscience and translating them into benefits for patients with motor neurone disease (MND) and related disorders.
After Irene Beard was diagnosed with MND in 2003, aged 61, she was treated by Professor Pamela Shaw. In 2005, she asked Professor Shaw what she would do with £20m to research into the disease; Professor Shaw replied that she would develop the first European research institute and attract the best clinicians and scientists from around the world.
“Well, I’m going to help you do it,” Beard told her.
Today, SITraN is a world class research institute, attracting some of the best clinicians and scientists in the world. They are united by a common goal: to understand what causes MND, and devise better treatments that slow down the disease’s progression and, one day, find a cure.
The MND Association currently funds 15 researchers based at SITraN, across 13 research projects. Professor Janine Kirby has been part of the team there for almost 20 years, since 2001.
