International Progressive MS Alliance to Announce First Round of Research Grants Aimed at Finding Solutions for Progressive MS

WHAT:The International Progressive MS Alliance will host a press briefing at ACTRIMS-ECTRIMS, the world’s largest MS science meeting, to announce the recipients of its first round of research grants in the amount of € 22 million (nearly $30 million USD). The grants being awarded advance research and remove barriers to developing treatments for progressive MS.*

Researchers from nine countries will receive grants to fund short-term pilot studies that begin filling knowledge and infrastructure gaps such as identifying and testing potential treatments; understanding nerve degeneration; building databanks and biobanks to better understand long-term imaging, genetics, and outcomes associated with progressive MS.

The International Progressive MS Alliance is an unprecedented worldwide collaborative focused on finding solutions to progressive forms of multiple sclerosis that have so far eluded the scientific community. MS Societies around the globe have united in this research funding initiative in order to speed the development of new treatments for progressive MS by funding the best research, wherever it exists.

WHEN: Thursday, September 11, 2014, 3:30 – 4:30 p.m. EDT

WHERE: John B. Hynes Veterans Memorial Convention Center900 Boylston Street, Boston, MA 02115Room 204Entrance to the briefing is by invitation/RSVP Below

WHY:Connect with cutting-edge researchers representing renowned scientific institutions from around the world who are changing the face of progressive MS research and future treatment. Their work will cover clinical trials and outcome measures/biomarkers; underlying pathology of progression; gene studies; developing new disease models; and, rehabilitation trials.

CONTACT:If you are unable to join the press briefing in person, please contact Arney Rosenblat to preview the embargoed announcement and grant details as well as to arrange interviews with both grantees and Alliance Scientific Steering Committee members:

Arney Rosenblat[email protected]212-476-0436Mobile: 917-613-5711

Lynn Blenkhorn[email protected]617-761-6766Mobile 508-851-0930

*This meeting is not part of the 2014 Joint ACTRIMS-ECTRIMS Meeting.

Meeting Link: MSBoston2014