Welcome to the University of Cambridge, Department of Clinical Neurosciences multiple sclerosis genetics group home page. The group is headed by Professor Alastair Compston and Professor Stephen Sawcer, and is based at Addenbrooke’s Hospital on the Cambridge Biomedical Campus. This web site is aimed primarily at scientists working on multiple sclerosis and related diseases. For more general information and advice about MS please see the Multiple Sclerosis Society in the UK, the National Multiple Sclerosis Society in the US or the International Federation of Multiple Sclerosis Societies.

We believe that multiple sclerosis results from the effects of environmental agents acting on genetically susceptible individuals. It is our research hypothesis that the identification of the genes determining susceptibility will substantially improve understanding of the pathogenesis of the disease and thereby direct and promote novel treatment strategies. Our work is primarily based on non-prejudicial systematic genome wide screening. We are members of the International Multiple Sclerosis Genetics Consortium (IMSGC) and the Wellcome Trust Case Control Consortium (WTCCC), and collaborate with colleagues based in the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, the Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics, the Quebec Genome Centre, the University of Calgary and the Montreal Neurological Institute.

If you are interested in results from the 2011 Genome-wide Association Screen (GWAS) and the 2013 Immunochip study these are searchable on Immunobase. Our web site was previously based at the Cambridge Institute of Medical Research (CIMR) but details regarding the Multiple Sclerosis Severity Score (MSSS) and the top results from the 2011 GWAS are still available.