Secretary of State for Health and Social Care visits King’s

02 February 2023 - The visit comes as £50m is allocated for motor neurone disease research

On 2 February, Stephen Barclay MP met with clinicians from King’s College Hospital, scientists from King’s College London, and patients to better understand how £50m allocated for motor neurone disease (MND) research could be used.

Accompanied by Professor Clive Kay, Chief Executive of King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and Professor Ammar Al-Chalabi, Consultant Neurologist at King’s College Hospital and Professor of Neurology and Complex Disease Genetics at King’s College London, Mr Barclay was shown how some of this funding would benefit research and patients at the King’s MND Care and Research Centre.

The Government funding is awarded to a national collaboration, badged under the name UK MND Research Institute. The Institute officially launched on 1 January 2023, and the partnership includes patient activists and charities.

The Rt Hon Stephen Barclay MP said: “Motor neurone disease can have a devastating impact on people’s lives, and I’m working with leading researchers to accelerate research and help find a cure as soon as we can.

“We have made strong progress since we pledged £50 million for MND research with new treatments being developed and promising results from clinical trials reported, but I know there is still more to do.”

Professor Ammar Al-Chalabi, Co-Director of the UK MND Research Institute added: “The UK MND Research Institute is an idea driven by patients in partnership with clinicians and scientists and will dramatically accelerate the search for a much-needed cure.”

Professor Clive Kay, Chief Executive of King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust said: “Here at King’s, we have a long history of providing world-leading care to MND patients thanks to our highly expert and dedicated team, and the pioneering early collaboration between the Trust and King’s College London. We are delighted the Secretary of State chose to visit King’s this week to see the fantastic work happening at both a research and clinical level.”

Professor Shitij Kapur, Principal and President of King’s College London, added, “We are delighted the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care The Rt Hon Steve Barclay MP, was able to visit King’s and the Maurice Wohl Clinical Neuroscience Institute, to see first-hand our ground-breaking MND research and meet the scientists working in the King’s MND Care and Research Centre. The UK MND Research Institute represents the ongoing collaborative nature of MND research. It builds upon the work of the MND Care and Research Centre, a partnership between King’s College London and King’s College Hospital, and was the first specialist centre for MND in the UK to provide diagnosis and care to people with MND.”

King’s MND Care and Research Centre is a national centre of excellence for the diagnosis and care of people with the condition. Established in 1995, it was the first such centre in the UK to combine multidisciplinary care at King’s College Hospital with clinical research at King’s College London. In the last year, 147 King’s patients took part in clinical research, made possible because of the close links between the clinic and the laboratories.