The importance of understanding the mechanics/processes of MS.

In Clayton Christensen's "Innovator's Prescription" he highlights a chart which shows a correlation between how treatable common diseases and conditions are versus how much current science understands the disease/condition.

Figure 2.4 Current map of common medical conditions from "Innovator's Prescription" by Clayton M. Christensen and how the Myelin Repair Foundation wants to move "multiple sclerosis" up the continuum of understanding and of effective treatments.

As you can see, multiple sclerosis is one of the more complex diseases that isn't yet understood (lower left-hand quadrant).

This chart clearly shows how complex the world of diseases and medical conditions can be and why it's important to move our understanding of the biological processes and mechanisms of multiple sclerosis and demyelination up the continuum from intuitive to precise knowledge.

In order to develop a more precise knowledge of the disease, scientists can benefit by utilizing a research plan to help guide them in their research (as you can't expect a precise understanding to happen spontaneously). It also helps to work collaboratively with other scientists in their field -- sharing what they've learned about the many processes and piggy-backing off other's research projects.

The Myelin Repair Foundation's team of scientists are focused every day on developing a more precise understanding the biological processes and finding more "potential targets" in myelin repair. Our organization is also focused on the goal of moving up the Y-axis continuum and developing an efficacious treatment for patients from our understanding of all the processes.

With our Accelerated Research Collaboration (TM) model, the MRF aims to move diagonally to the upper right-hand quadrant, towards greater precise knowledge of demyelination in MS and the ultimate goal: a myelin repair treatment for individuals with MS.

We hope that more research organizations working on complex and little-understood diseases like Lupus and Alzheimer's will look at our model or find new ways for their scientists to tackle the problem of developing a precise understanding of the disease's mechanisms and also be focused on developing effective treatments.

Learn more about us at www.myelinrepair.org