The MSIF Young Researchers Award is given for the best presentation of a translational project by a young researcher at ECTRIMS.

The €1000 award was launched at ECTRIMS 2009 in Dusseldorf under the MSIF Research Alumni programme, to support young researchers and encourage them to remain in the MS field.

Maarten Witte wins the 2011 Award

Maarten Witte receives the 2011 award from Dr Olga Ciccarelli of the UCL Institute of Neurology, a former MSIF Du Pré Grant recipient.

Maarten Witte, a predoctoral student at the Department of Pathology at the VU University Medical Centre, Amsterdam, Netherlands, was awarded the MSIF prize of €1000 for the best presentation of a translational project by a young researcher at the joint ACTRIMS/ECTRIMS 2011 meeting in Amsterdam.

Maarten’s presentation, titled ‘PGC-1alpha –driven downregulation of mitochondrial protection and energy production in MS cortex’, examined the expression of antioxidant enzymes and uncoupling proteins that protect mitochondria – subcellular structures that are crucial to neuronal energy supply - from damage by reactive oxygen species.

Maarten’s research identified a number of antioxidant and uncoupling proteins whose expression was reduced in the cingulated and frontal cortex of the brain of people with MS, and subsequently showed that levels of PGC1-alpha, a transcriptional co-activator that is crucial to the expression of many genes involved in energy metabolism, was also decreased in the cortex of people with MS. These observations suggest that reduced PGC-1alpha levels may explain much of the mitochondrial dysfunction that is an important contributor to neurodegeneration in MS.

Dr Shiv Saidha wins the 2010 Award

Dr Shiv Saidha from Ireland and of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, USA, was awarded the MSIF prize of €1000 for the best presentation of a translational project in the ECTRIMS 2010 Young Researchers Session.


Dr Saidha’s presentation, titled 'Primary retinal pathology in multiple sclerosis as detected by optical coherence tomography', identified a unique subset of MS patients with primary retinal pathology in whom there appeared to be disproportionate thinning of the inner and outer nuclear layers and more rapid disease progression, suggesting a possible direct pathologic process in retinal neurons in MS that may be associated with cortical atrophy.

Volker Siffrin wins the 2009 Award

The first award was given to Volker Siffrin from Charite University of Medicine in Berlin, Germany, for his presentation on 'Intravital imaging of TH17-mediated neuronal damage processes in experimental autoimmune encephalmyelitis'.