The National Multiple Sclerosis Society has committed over $25 million to support an expected 60 new MS research projects, as well as 7 MS clinical training awards. These are part of a comprehensive strategy aimed at stopping MS, restoring function that has been lost, and ending the disease forever – for every single person with MS.This financial commitment is the latest in the Society’s relentless research efforts to move us closer to a world free of MS, and part of a projected investment of $54 million in 2016 alone to support more than 380 new and ongoing studies around the world. The Society pursues all promising paths, while focusing on priority areas including progressive MS, nervous system repair, gene/environmental risk factors and wellness and lifestyle.Just a few of the new cutting-edge research projects include an ambitious project at Harvard and the University of California, San Francisco that tracks a group of people with MS over time and creates a platform to enable researchers worldwide to identify factors that drive MS progression; a clinical trial in Germany and the U.S. testing an online program to treat MS-related depression to increase wellness; a study at Ohio State University looking at whether low vitamin D in early life increases the risk of developing MS; and a Collaborative MS Center at Mayo Clinic in Minnesota focusing on whether abnormal energy production in nerve cells contributes to nerve degeneration, and strategies to correct it in MS. The Society is also launching 7 clinical training awards to increase the number of MS specialists who can provide the highest quality of care to people with MS.“The comprehensive nature of these new research investments is very exciting,” notes Bruce Bebo, PhD, National MS Society’s Executive Vice President, Research. “We’re funding scientific breakthroughs that will propel the knowledge we need to end MS and identify everyday solutions that change the lives of people with all forms of the disease.” Download details about the new research awards.