Skeletal muscle is a very complicated tissue, responsible for generating all forms of human movement and is very important for maintaining human health across our life-course. It is also one of the major sites of dysfunction in diseases such as motor neurone disease (MND), in which the connection between our brain and muscle stops working properly, leading to ‘wasting’ of skeletal muscle. Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), the most common MND type, has historically believed to be caused by defects in the brain system. However, recent evidence has suggested that skeletal muscle may have a more active role initiating and progressing the disease, than first believed.

To uncover what role skeletal muscle plays in ALS, we have developed a new technique allowing us to study skeletal muscle on a cell-by-cell basis. Moreso, our new methodology allows us to generate different types of data from each of these muscle cells, giving us an extremely comprehensive look at the behaviour of muscle cells in ALS patients.

We hope that our results will advance our understanding of skeletal muscles active role in ALS disease and support the development of therapeutic and pharmaceutical interventions to stop the wasting of muscle in the disease.