Search

Key Areas of Investigation

Researching myelin repair is a very complex process. The Myelin Repair Foundation’s Research Plan details the research necessary to discover myelin repair treatments and catalogs unanswered questions that must be resolved in order to understand how multiple sclerosis disrupts myelination -- and how the repair process can be stimulated.

Mapping the Research

The illustration below shows the areas of research for each Myelin Repair Foundation scientist (Principal Investigator) and lab. The arrows show where collaboration will play a critical role in helping accelerate the rate of treatment discoveries

Research projects in these six key areas of investigation are focused on identifying novel therapeutic targets to arrest the multiple sclerosis process and/or promote remyelination:

1. Understanding how oligodendrocytes are normally generated from neural stem cells and how multiple sclerosis perturbs this process.
2. Understanding the underlying mechanism of myelination and how it is perturbed in multiple sclerosis.
3. Understanding how nodes of Ranvier and paranodes are normally formed and how they are perturbed in multiple sclerosis.
4. Understanding the immune response in multiple sclerosis and how inflammation affects myelin repair.
5. Understanding how the Blood-Brain Barrier is affected in multiple sclerosis and its role in the disease.
6. Development of better animal models for study of multiple sclerosis and remyelination.