MS Australia funds a record number of projects targeting MS research priorities

• MS Australia has funded over $5.7 million towards MS research grants commencing in 2025. 
• The 35 new projects address MS Australia’s priorities for MS research, including causes and prevention, better treatments and cures via repair and regeneration of cells. 
• The projects are driving groundbreaking research in key areas, from using cutting-edge technologies to identify biomarkers for earlier MS detection, to developing innovative treatments for motor symptoms, promoting myelin repair and exploring lifestyle impacts. 
  
• MS Australia’s largest-ever funding round in terms of the number of projects has been made possible thanks to the investment and support of MSWA. 

MS Australia is funding the highest number of research projects in a single grant round to date in 2025, reinforcing our commitment to advancing MS research. Thirty-five new projects, ranging from one-year innovative studies to major three-year projects, have received grant funding from MS Australia in 2025. 

The new grants, totalling over $5.7 million, also include fellowships and scholarships to support and grow Australia’s MS research workforce and promote global collaborations in the pursuit of pathways to cures.

In addition to its normal contribution to MS Australia research, MSWA contributed a further $2.4 million dollars into this grant round which allowed for the funding of an additional 10 of the 35 funded projects, guaranteeing important MS research would commence, not just in Western Australia, but throughout the country.

The 2025 funding supports a range of MS research priorities, including causes and prevention, better treatments, and cures through cell repair and regeneration. The grants are driving groundbreaking research in key areas – from using cutting-edge technologies to identify biomarkers for earlier MS detection, to developing innovative treatments for motor symptoms. The researchers are also exploring exciting new ways to repair myelin and improve outcomes through diet and lifestyle changes, paving the way for transformative breakthroughs in MS. 

MS is a complex disease, which is why it is essential to address all these areas. By doing so, we can gain a better understanding of MS and find the best ways to combat it.  

As always, these grants were selected following a rigorous external expert review process, overseen by our Research Management Council. This ensures that funded projects and researchers are of the highest quality and have the greatest potential to make a meaningful impact for people living with MS.  

We are committed to supporting a wide range of projects, but limited resources mean that not every high-quality project could be funded. We continue to seek ways to expand our funding capacity each year. 

Here’s a look at some of the groundbreaking projects advancing MS research. 

Incubator Grant – Exploring electrical muscle stimulation to improve MS motor symptoms 

Up to 80% of people with MS experience fatigue, and of those, half report difficulties in work, exercise, and daily activities. It is important to identify cost-effective and viable treatments for debilitating symptoms in an increasingly growing population in Australia. 

Transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS) is a simple and non-invasive technique that is used to treat various health conditions. Recent research suggests that repeated TENS treatment on leg muscles in people with MS can improve walking ability, muscle strength and reduce fatigue symptoms. 

Associate Professor Justin Kavanagh from Griffith University, QLD, and his team recently used advanced brain stimulation techniques to reveal that people with MS experience altered sensory-to-motor processing – this is the body’s ability to take in information from the senses and use it to control movements. The changes were more pronounced during physical activity.  

The team will build on this work by determining if repetitive muscle stimulation modifies sensory-to-motor processing in the brain, potentially improving the ability to activate muscles during motor fatigue.  

This work is crucial for developing evidence-based clinical and at-home treatments for motor symptoms of MS. 

Postdoctoral Fellowship – Mining cells and medical records for early signs of MS 

MS can cause nerve damage even before noticeable symptoms appear. For doctors, this early phase is like solving a puzzle with missing pieces – they may see unexplained brain abnormalities but lack the full picture.  

Dr Seyhan Yazar from the Garvan Institute of Medical Research, NSW is focusing on the ‘prodromal phase’ of MS. This is the stage where vague symptoms may occur but don’t yet meet the criteria for a diagnosis of MS. Since these symptoms can occur within the general population, identifying them as early signs of MS is challenging.  

Dr Yazar aims to find clues in the blood, called biomarkers, that could reveal MS before typical symptoms appear. When combined with brain scans, these biomarkers could help doctors diagnose MS earlier, especially in people who are at higher risk. 

Postgraduate Scholarship – Understanding drugs that can repair myelin 

In MS, myelin is damaged, and the cells responsible for producing it, called oligodendrocytes, decrease in both number and effectiveness. A promising treatment approach involves stimulating immature cells known as oligodendrocyte precursor cells to mature and regenerate myelin. 

Mr Jack McDonald from Monash University, VIC, will focus on a protein called GPR17, which is found on immature oligodendrocytes. This protein plays a key role in helping these cells mature, making it a promising target for drugs that could promote myelin repair in MS. 

He will study the pathways affected by drugs targeting GPR17 to better understand how this protein supports myelin repair. Using genetic tools, drug-based methods, and advanced cell models, he aims to clarify the role of GPR17 in remyelination.  

By uncovering how GPR17 influences myelin formation, this project aims to inform future drug development for myelin repair in MS. 

Project Grant – Co-designing exercise promotion for MS healthcare professionals 

Exercise offers significant benefits for people with MS, yet many individuals with MS are not engaging in enough physical activity to fully experience these benefits. 

Associate Professor Yvonne Learmonth from Murdoch University, WA, and her team have found that people with MS would like to discuss exercise, receive accurate and consistent information, and have access to tools or referrals to exercise specialists from their doctors or nurses. They also found that while doctors and nurses involved in MS care want to promote exercise, they often lack the knowledge, strategies, resources, and confidence to do so effectively. 

To address this, Associate Professor Learmonth and her team will consult with people with MS, as well as doctors and nurses involved in MS care, to co-design an intervention and toolkit to assist MS healthcare professionals to promote exercise. 

The team will design and test their intervention to ensure it can be easily implemented by doctors and nurses in MS care. At the end of the project, they will evaluate how effectively exercise is being promoted and the impact this has on the exercise habits in people with MS. 

Thank you to our supporters 

This is just a glimpse of some of the groundbreaking research MS Australia is funding in 2025. 

We are deeply grateful to the MS community, our donors, and funding partners, including MS Plus, MS Queensland, MSWA and MS Society of SA & NT, for making it possible to fund these remarkable researchers as they pursue pathways to cures. 

The full details of these and the other projects we are funding in 2025 can be found here.