I am a plant parent who enjoys travelling, doesn't conventionally go hand-in-hand but I make it work!

I have been working in the immunology side of multiple sclerosis (MS) research for the past six years and knowing that the scientific findings from the lab can be used to expand the knowledge on MS pathogenesis and contribute towards making progressive steps for MS treatment, is a very rewarding experience. Neuroimmunology is a very interesting field and there's a lot of untapped niches to explore within it.

The breakthroughs and scientific discoveries in MS over the past decade, including the findings within the neuroimmunological realm, altogether has helped to better understand the disease pathology as well as develop advanced treatment strategies.

The current project is an approach to understand the preliminary ‘know-how’ as to whether the power of patients’ own immune cells can be harnessed to induce neuroregeneration in MS and also provide its mechanistic information. The aim is to identify cellular agents that can improve remyelination in MS, eventually contributing to reducing neurological disability in MS in the future.

Our previous work shows that autologous haematopoietic stem cell transplantation (AHSCT) can induce sustained immune renewal and extensive remodelling of the clonal T-cell repertoire, resulting in durable clinical remission in people with MS. And currently therapies exist which can slow the neurological disability progression, however, do not completely prevent it. Therapies inducing sustained neuroregeneration still remain a landmark goal for MS treatment.

Hence our current project will be early stages of a pilot laboratory study to ascertain whether regulatory immune cells obtained from people with MS are viable cellular therapy agents to induce remyelination. If successful, this preliminary study will be of high clinical relevance for paving the steps towards successful neuroregeneration in MS.

Laboratory research is never easy and there are a lot of steps to go through, right from the project design stages to obtaining research funding and performing scientific experiments, along with the experiment optimisations and troubleshooting steps that come with it. But it is these processes that makes the research and the researchers unique, and all these become even more worthwhile on knowing that the knowledge gained through these steps can be ultimately used to improve the lives of people living with MS.