16/08/2026
At the Foundation, we are excited to let you know a study of HSP gait by the Engineering Department at Griffith University in Brisbane, which was initiated by the late Professor Alan Mackay-Sim, has now been published in a scientific journal. The study was conducted in 2019 and 2020 with a total of 11 Community members participating in walking experiments on four different occasions. In addition, a further 8 people, without HSP, participated in a control group capacity to compare HSP and non-HSP gait using a new approach to analysing the data gathered by wearable sensors. The next step is for further investigation to gather more evidence and assess the practical value of this potential biomarker.
The published paper discusses how there are no biomarkers as yet for HSP suitable for use in clinical trials. Such a biomarker needs to be able to definitively measure disease status, disease progression and response to treatment over the course of the trial. The study at Griffith University successfully correlated the novel approach to gait analysis with other measures of HSP such as the Spastic Paraplegia Rating Scale, and successfully distinguished the HSP group from the matching non-HSP control group in the study. The technology used is a wearable sensor, which will allow widespread use and broader application compared with laboratory based gait analysis approaches.
We felt it important to let you know that members of our community participated in this study with the potential to become an important biomarker, which is at the top of the list for moving HSP research into clinical trials so that the effectiveness of therapies and treatments can be confidently and accurately assessed.
