NTI raffle truck drives MND research

The funds raised through raffling a restored and updated classic truck are allowing a Brisbane-based medical researcher to continue her work in understanding Motor Neuron Disease (MND).

Dr Lotta Oikari is a Senior Research Officer at QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute. She recently benefited from a new grant funded by the raffling of the truck, a 1946 Ford Jailbar, by major transport insurance heavyweight, NTI.

The raffle raised $483,000 last year.

“I’ve been focusing on MND research for about five years,” says Dr Oikari. “I’m passionate about using my expertise in stem cells to better understand neurological diseases that are difficult to treat, such as MND, with the aim of finding new treatments for these diseases.

“Using the NTI grant, I will use stem cells obtained from people with MND to generate laboratory models of a structure called the blood-brain barrier (BBB). The BBB is a crucial defense system that protects the brain from unwanted molecules, but its function is often impaired in various brain diseases, including MND.

“It is also known that people with MND have abnormal aggregation of the protein TDP-43 in brain cells. I will investigate if abnormal TDP-43 leads to BBB breakage and whether treating this can restore the blood-brain barrier. Understanding this could help better understand MND progression and develop new treatments.”

The raffling of the restored truck, known as Bonnie, brings the total funds raised by NTI for MND research to over $2.5 million.

“Research funding, especially for rare diseases like MND, is scarce,” says Dr Oikari. “This has a devastating impact for people living with MND as there still is no cure for this fatal disorder.

“Grants like this are critical to develop new research approaches to better understand the disease, which is a crucial stepping stone for developing new treatments. I can use the data generated from this grant to apply for larger multi-year grants to ensure continuum of my research, which is critical for successful long-term research and ultimately finding treatments and/or cures for devastating diseases like MND.”

NTI’s Chief Customer Officer, Janelle Greene, said NTI itself had been impacted by the disease.

“Our team puts in an extensive amount of work to restore the vehicles raffled for MND research,” she said.

“Bonnie took 2500 hours to restore and it was all worth it, with much-needed funds raised.

“This is a cause very close to our hearts as our former CEO, Wayne Patterson, lost his battle with MND in 2018.

“More than 2000 Australians live with the disease, and we’re committed to helping find a cure.”

The NTI MND Research Grant is administered through the MND and Me Foundation.