NTI boosts motor neurone disease research

A Brisbane-based medical researcher started 2025 with a new grant for her work on developing a cure for Motor Neurone Disease (MND), a condition that claims the lives of two Australians every day, thanks to heavy vehicle insurer NTI.

Dr Lotta Oikari, a Senior Research Officer at QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute, is the recipient of the NTI MND Research Grant, funded by money raised from restoring and raffling vintage trucks.

The most recent raffle, which was for a restored 1946 Ford Jailbar dubbed ‘Bonnie’, raised $483,000 through ticket sales.

“I’ve been focusing on MND research for about five years. I’m passionate about using my expertise in stem cells to better understand neurological diseases that are difficult to treat, such as MND, with the aim of finding new treatments for these diseases,” Dr Oikari said.

“Using the NTI grant, I will use stem cells obtained from people with MND to generate laboratory models of a structure called the blood-brain barrier (BBB). The BBB is a crucial defense system that protects the brain from unwanted molecules, but its function is often impaired in various brain diseases, including MND.

“It is also known that people with MND have abnormal aggregation of the protein TDP-43 in brain cells. I will investigate if abnormal TDP-43 leads to BBB breakage and whether treating this can restore the blood-brain barrier. Understanding this could help better understand MND progression and develop new treatments.”

Bonnie was the seventh truck to be restored and raffled by Australia’s largest transport and logistics insurance provider, NTI, bringing the total the organisation has raised for MND research to more than $2.5 million.

“Research funding, especially for rare diseases like MND, is scarce. This has a devastating impact for people living with MND as there still is no cure for this fatal disorder,” Dr Oikari said.

“Grants like this are critical to develop new research approaches to better understand the disease, which is a crucial stepping stone for developing new treatments. I can use the data generated from this grant to apply for larger multi-year grants to ensure continuum of my research, which is critical for successful long-term research and ultimately finding treatments and/or cures for devastating diseases like MND.”

NTI’s Chief Customer Officer, Janelle Greene commended the work the team puts in to restore the vehicles raffled for MND research.

“Bonnie took 2,500 hours to restore, and it was all worth it, with much-needed funds raised,” Ms Greene said.

“This is a cause very close to our hearts as our former CEO, Wayne Patterson, lost his battle with MND in 2018. More than 2000 Australians live with the disease, and we’re committed to helping find a cure.”