Three bold new research programmes focusing on devastating neurodegenerative diseases - Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease and motor neurone disease - have received major funding from the Wellcome Trust and the Medical Research Council.

Here, we speak to Professor Christopher Shaw at the Institute of Psychiatry, London, who explains the terrible effects of motor neurone disease and how the latest genetic breakthroughs will allow his assembled team to gain insight into the precise causes and mechanism of this disease.