Leading Irish Neurologist Receives International Award for Motor Neurone Disease Research

Dec 02, 2011

Professor Orla Hardiman, TCD Clinical Professor of Neurology, HRB Clinical Scientist and Consultant Neurologist at Beaumont Hospital has been awarded the 2011 Forbes Norris Award. The award recognises people who have shown exceptional care and compassion in the study and management of Motor Neurone Disease.
Motor Neurone Disease (MND) is a fatal neurodegenerative disease characterised primarily by progressive paralysis. There are no effective treatments for MND with death usually occurring within 3-5 years of symptom onset. The causes of MND are not well understood. Some forms are genetic and the condition also occurs with higher than expected frequency in athletes. Research taking place at Trinity College Dublin aims to reveal a better understanding of the disease which will in turn lead to new solutions so that MND can be a treatable disease for all sufferers. Ireland is already recognised as a leader in MND research.

The Forbes Norris Award was inaugurated by the International Alliance in memory of Dr Forbes (Ted) Norris, a neurologist dedicated to helping people with Motor Neurone Disease. This prestigious Award is given annually to a physician thought by his/her peers in the Motor Neurone Disease community to have shown exceptional care and compassion in the study and management of Motor Neurone Disease. The Award is to encourage a combination of two major qualities, management of and research into the disease to the benefit of people living with Motor Neurone Disease.

On receiving the award, Professor Hardiman said: “I am very honoured to receive this prestigious award. It is especially moving that it is given by the peers working in Motor Neurone Disease, who are a community of great colleagues striving to find solutions to tackle this disease.”

Professor Hardiman has been a Consultant Neurologist at Beaumont Hospital since 1996 and became a Fellow of Royal College of Physicians in Ireland in 2001. In 2004, she became the first Irish-based neurologist to become a Fellow of the American Academy of Neurology. She is also the recipient of a number of honours and awards, including the first American Academy of Neurology Sheila Essey Award for MND Research and the Palatucci Award for Advocacy in Neurology.

Her primary research interests include the epidemiology and pathogenesis of Motor Neurone Disease with particular reference to the identification of genetic and environmental susceptibility factors. Her internationally recognised group recently identified an important new susceptibility gene for Motor Neurone Disease which occurs with higher frequency in populations of Celtic extraction. The group is in active collaboration with many of the major MND centres in Europe and the USA, and is a member of the US based Genome Wide Association Consortium for MND. Recent work has also focussed on the clinical and genetic overlap between MND and frontotemporal dementia, for which Professor Hardiman has received one of only eight prestigious Health Research Board Clinician Scientist Awards.