AFL legend Neale Daniher’s FightMND puts $2m into global research effort linked to Stephen Hawking

AFL legend Neale Daniher’s FightMND has put a huge sum towards a global effort to find a cure for motor neurone disease. It’s been backed by the late Stephen Hawking’s daughter.

The daughter of the late Stephen Hawking and family of AFL legend Neale Daniher have been brought together in the race to find a cure for motor neurone disease.

It can be revealed that Daniher’s charity FightMND is contributing $2m out of a total $15m in funding for the prestigious international Longitude Prize on ALS, cementing its position on the global research stage.

The prize pool is also coming from the Motor Neurone Disease Association, which Professor Hawking had been a patron of.

His daughter Lucy Hawking has been promoting the importance of the five-year competition, which will focus on using AI to find out the molecular causes behind the most common form of MND, Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).

She said it would be a powerful step forward in the fight against the disease that her father, a world-renowned physicist, lived with for 55 years.

Neale Daniher’s FightMND has contributed $2m to a major research prize. Picture: Jason Edwards

“Drug breakthroughs over the past couple of years, combined with rapid developments surrounding AI, put us at an exciting crossroads, where there is real promise in making marked advancements in MND research and treatment, both of which can improve quality of life for people living with the disease as well as their loved ones across the globe,” she said in a statement.

Daniher’s daughter Bec said it was “unique” and “special” to be involved in the same project as Ms Hawking.

“Both of us have watched how MND has targeted our loved ones, our dads, and seen that impact,” she said.

“I’m sure Lucy is similar to me, we just want to find a way that other daughters and sons don’t have to watch their loved ones go through what the beast does.

“It creates a lasting impact and we need to support the great minds who are able to find these answers.

“We want to write the future, which means that MND is a curable disease.”

Davor Stanic, manager of infrastructure and innovation at FightMND, said this was the first year the Longitude Prize series was focusing on ALS.

He said the charity had been associated with Ms Hawking through partnering with Challenge Works, which organises the Longitude Prize.

“It’s very important to be a global leader and contribute to global prizes such as these that bring new ideas, technology and thinking into the MND research sector and drive a cure,” he said.

Stephen and Lucy Hawking. Picture: Angela Micu

The prize works by moving through three phases.

In the first year there would be $4m available across 20 teams to develop AI technologies that pinpoint the molecular causes of MND.

Only 10 of these teams would then progress through to the next year to continue this work.

Then it would be brought down to just five teams who would get funding for preclinical testing involving drugs for MND.

A winner would then be announced in January 2031 and their project will go towards a clinical trial with $2m in funding.

Melbourne great Neale Daniher with daughters Bec and Loz, who have been tireless in their work to support finding a cure. Picture: NewsWire / David Geraghty

“This is an opportunity for global teams to come together to really explore these data sets and find reasons for why MND is occurring and then progress that to developing therapies and targets to cure MND,” Dr Stanic said.

Applications closed on December 4, with a judging panel now looking at whittling down the 150-plus entrants to the top 20.

Originally published as AFL legend Neale Daniher’s FightMND puts $2m into global research effort linked to Stephen Hawking