Story

Continuing the Mission:

Building on Professor Justin Yerbury’s vision for MND research

When Dr Christen Chisholm received the 2026 MND Australia Bill Gole Research Fellowship, it marked more than a professional milestone.

More than a decade earlier, the same fellowship had supported her mentor and close friend, Professor Justin Yerbury, one of Australia’s leading MND researchers, who died of MND in 2023. For Christen, the connection is deeply personal. 

“There’s something incredibly special about following in Justin’s footsteps,” she says. “He believed passionately in this research and in mentoring people around him.” 

Christen didn’t take the traditional path into MND research. After studying science at the University of Wollongong, she initially worked in cancer research before stepping away from research altogether. She retrained as a teacher, spending years teaching biology and chemistry in London and later across the Illawarra while raising her three daughters. But her enthusiasm for scientific research never completely left her. 

“I always loved it,” Christen says. “I loved the problem solving, the mysteries, the discovery. It was always in the back of my mind.” 

Through her long friendship with Justin’s wife, Rachel, Christen watched Justin’s remarkable scientific career unfold over many years. She also witnessed the devastating progression of his MND after symptoms emerged in 2016. 

In 2018, shortly after Justin underwent life-extending ventilation surgery, Christen decided she wanted to return to research and support his work. In 2019, Christen joined Justin’s lab at the University of Wollongong, beginning research into one of the defining features of MND: the toxic build-up of misfolded proteins inside motor neurons. 

Justin’s research focused on proteostasis, the systems cells use to maintain healthy proteins. In MND, these systems fail, allowing proteins to clump together and damage motor neurons. 

“He believed the collapse of these protein control systems was central to the disease,” Christen explains. “The question became: how do we help cells clear those toxic proteins before they cause damage?” 

During her PhD, Christen worked on a groundbreaking genetic therapy designed to identify harmful proteins, tag them, and direct them toward the cell’s natural waste disposal systems.

Early results were promising. In laboratory cells and mouse models, the therapy reduced toxic proteins, protected motor neurons, and slowed disease progression. But one major challenge remained: getting treatments into the brain. 

“The brain is protected by the blood-brain barrier,” Christen says. “Most drugs simply can’t cross it.” 

Now, through her Bill Gole Fellowship, Christen is exploring a new approach that combines mRNA technology with focused ultrasound to help deliver therapies into the brain more effectively. 

The mRNA technology, similar to that used in COVID-19 vaccines, packages treatments inside tiny lipid nanoparticles. Focused ultrasound then uses low-energy sound waves to temporarily open the blood-brain barrier, allowing therapies circulating in the bloodstream to pass into the brain.

“It’s a really exciting time,” Christen says. 

“The technology that emerged during COVID has opened doors for so many diseases, including MND.” 

For Christen the work remains closely tied to Justin’s legacy. Even while living with MND himself, Justin continued to lead research, mentor students, and push scientific boundaries. 

“He was extraordinary,” Christen says. “Even as communication became harder, he remained completely driven to keep contributing.” 

Christen says support from organisations like MND Australia has been critical not only to her own work, but to the entire MND research community in Australia. 

“The MND research workforce we have in Australia today really exists because of decades of investment from charities like MND Australia,” she says. “Very little MND research funding comes from government sources, so these fellowships and grants are absolutely vital.” 

She believes sustained funding has helped build a collaborative and highly connected community of Australian MND researchers, many of whom have dedicated their careers to the field. 

“That continuity of funding keeps researchers in the sector,” Christen says. “Without it, we risk losing expertise and momentum.” 

Continuing Justin’s work now feels both scientific and deeply personal. 

“To continue building on the ideas he believed in means a great deal to me,” she says. “That’s Justin’s legacy.”

This article is featured in Momentum 003, read the full magazine here