National Multiple Sclerosis Society to Fund UNC Research Effort

Chapel Hill, N.C. — Researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill will receive $825,000 in funding from the National Multiple Sclerosis Society as part of an effort to combat the deadly disease.

The Eastern North Carolina Chapter of the MS group is providing some of the financial support for the grant.

Researchers led by Jenny Ting at UNC’s Department of Microbiology and Immunology are leading the research effort.

“The University of North Carolina has been helping us better understand multiple sclerosis for a long time. Now, as the momentum of discovery is accelerating, the university is finding a very progressive way to help even more,” said Bob Bryan, president of the Eastern North Carolina Chapter. “Thanks to the commitment of scientists such as Dr. Ting, the National MS Society is getting closer every day to ending MS.”

Other researchers include Albert Baldwin with the Department of Biology, Manzoor Bhat with the Department of Cell and Molecular Physiology, Silva Markovic-Plese with the Department of Neurology, and Glenn Matsushima with the Department of Microbiology and Immunology.

“Without the long-term support of the National MS Society, we would not be able to pursue the critical research we are conducting,” Ting said in a statement.

MS affects members of more than 10,000 families in North Carolina and more than 2.5 million people around the world, according to the MS Society.