A SCIENTIST who has spent his life trying to find a cure for muscular dystrophy is backing this year's Town and Gown fundraising run for research into the debilitating condition.

Professor Matthew Wood is urging people to sign up to the Oxford Mail-backed run in Oxford city centre on May 15.

The 10k run raises money for Muscular Dystrophy UK, which funds his work into the most severe kind of the condition: Duchenne.

Professor Wood said: "The research we undertake at the lab here in Oxford involves finding a treatment to correct the abnormality of the genes of people with the most severe form of muscular dystrophy, as opposed to replacing them.

"By correcting the gene, the body will be able to create a protein, which will keep the muscles healthy and prevent them from degenerating.

"The work we're doing is extremely promising. It's something that has never been done before and will hopefully give the young people living with Muscular Dystrophy a good ending."

Duchenne muscular dystrophy is a rare recessive form of the condition, which affects 1 in 3,600 boys, resulting in muscle degeneration and premature death.

Prof Wood said by developing a means of treating the most severe form of muscular dystrophy it would be possible to also treat milder forms too.

He said: "I've worked with a lot of young boys who are living with Duchenne muscular dystrophy and most of them are very bright individuals who want to know more about their condition and want to know exactly what we're doing in the lab.

"They are inspiring and people like them show that they do not need to be defined by muscular dystrophy and that they can achieve anything they want to."

Prof Wood graduated in Medicine from the University of Cape Town in 1987, working in clinical Neuroscience before gaining a doctorate in Physiological Sciences from the University of Oxford in 1993.

Having remained at the university ever since, Prof Wood says he is confident his research is a few years from creating a treatment that could extend the lives of those living with muscular dystrophy.

The 53-year-old said: "I'm confident that we are not far off developing something, which will mean young people with muscular dystrophy can live much longer lives.

"As a result, I fully back Town and Gown, not only because of the funding it gives us, but because it is a chance to educate people and give them an awareness of the condition and what we do here in the lab."

It costs £23 to £25 for over-16s to enter the 10k run on Sunday, May 15. Places on the 3k run for nine- to 15-year-olds are £12. Register at townandgown10k.com/OxMail