In her inaugural lecture Professor Anna Williams discusses how studying human MS brain tissue and laboratory models of remyelination can increase our understanding of how this repair process works and why it fails. In multiple sclerosis there is damage to the myelin sheaths of nerves (demyelination) which reduces the ability of nerves to conduct electricity and makes them prone to degeneration.

The brain can regenerate the myelin sheath (remyelination) which restores electrical conduction and protects the nerves. However, in people with multiple sclerosis, this repair system fails and we do not understand why.

Professor Williams discusses how studying human multiple sclerosis brain tissue and laboratory models of remyelination can increase our understanding of how this repair process works and why it fails. Understanding this better may lead to new therapies to improve remyelination and reduce disability in multiple sclerosis.