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A Day of Family Fitness to Benefit Project A.L.S. |
News
Northport High School presents check of $125,000 to Project A.L.S.
On May 18, 2010 Northport High School students presented Project A.L.S. with a check for $125,000 which they raised at their annual fundraiser 'Mid Summer Nights Dream'.
MOVE FOR ALS SPARKS GLOBAL GIVING IN THE FIGHT
AGAINST DEADLY BRAIN DISEASES
World Historian Tony Judt Inspires Epic Bike Trek
Across U.S. to Benefit Project A.L.S.
(April 15, 2010) On May 25, 2010, two young men will begin MOVE FOR ALS, a much anticipated two-month, 3600-mile bike trek from Astoria, Oregon to Brighton Beach, New York, in honor of eminent historian Tony Judt, who has ALS, (Lou Gehrig’s disease). The goal of the epic trek is to raise funds for Project A.L.S., which leads research toward treatments and a cure for the deadly brain disease. Major national media and social marketing campaigns are underway.
Saul Goldberg, a charismatic 24-year-old, started MOVE FOR ALS to honor his former professor and mentor Mr Judt. Mr. Goldberg and his friend, Augustin Quancard, are the cyclists.
“Saul Goldberg is a force. He epitomizes volunteerism, advocacy, and the ingenuity of his generation,” said Meredith Estess, president of Project A.L.S, which receives 100% of the proceeds from MOVE FOR ALS.
Project A.L.S. is promoting the thrilling ride across country via social marketing networks including Twitter, Facebook and Vimeo. In under three weeks since the website went live, MOVE FOR ALS has already attracted $20,000 in online donations: www.moveforals.com
“People from all over the world are donating $1…$5…$10. We’re hearing from supporters in Bangkok and Boston, Tanzania and Trinidad,” she added. “We haven’t seen a global outpouring like this before. MOVE FOR ALS is way bigger than a bike ride.”
MOVE FOR ALS was inspired by Tony Judt, renowned author of the current bestseller, Ill Fares the Land, and the acclaimed Postwar: A History of Europe Since 1945. Professor Judt has taught at University of California, Berkeley, Oxford University, and currently teaches at New York University. Almost two years ago, Judt was diagnosed with ALS, an untreatable neurodegenerative disease that is closely related to Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s. Experts say that breakthroughs in ALS research will inform approaches to all related brain diseases.
Every single dollar raised by MOVE FOR ALS through its website (www.moveforals.com) will be directed to Project A.L.S. research, including cutting-edge stem cell approaches, genetics studies, and accelerated drug screening. Event sponsors include Project A.L.S., Adventure Cycling Association, The New York Review of Books, Penguin, Garmin, Shimano and Ride the Zone.
Live coverage of the event begins on May 25 and continues through July 25, when Goldberg and Quancard finally arrive in Brighton Beach, in time for sunset and a swim. Fans may follow their cross-country progress live on the MOVE FOR ALS website: www.moveforals.com
View the full Project A.L.S.™ press release
Leading Researchers Unite for P2 ALS, a 3-Year Mission to Understand and Treat the Neurodegenerative Disease
January 29 2010 — Project A.L.S.™ (New York, NY) and the Robert Packard Center for ALS Research at Johns Hopkins University (Baltimore, MD) announced that they will partner on P2 ALS, a $15 million initiative designed to advance ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease) research exponentially over the next three years.
Project A.L.S.™ and the Packard Center, non-profit leaders in forging productive collaborations among research scientists, will focus jointly on identifying the underlying causes of and the first effective treatments for ALS, a uniformly fatal neurodegenerative disease that is closely related to Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and Huntington’s diseases. Co-scientific directors of P2 ALS are Robert H. Brown, Jr., M.D., D.Phil. (University of Massachusetts), Thomas M. Jessell, Ph.D. (HHMI/Columbia University), and Jeffrey Rothstein, M.D., Ph.D. (Johns Hopkins University).
P2ALS is distinctive in that it unites key world leaders in the three disciplines that have recently transformed the landscape of ALS science: Genetics, Stem Cell Reprogramming, and Glial-Neuron Signaling. Through P2ALS, targeted research in these three areas will be performed in an interactive, collaborative, and transparent manner. As such, the implications of discoveries in one area will be rapidly transmitted and tested in complementary areas, by multiple laboratories. New observations and ideas can and will be validated or refuted with unprecedented speed.
View the Project A.L.S.™ press release
SCIENTISTS DISCOVER A NEW ROLE FOR INTERNEURONS: MODULATING THE PERFORMANCE OF MOTOR NEURONS AND MUSCLES
Major Implications for ALS
It is well established that motor neurons send signals directly to muscles to make them contract. In the December 10, ‘09 issue of the journal Neuron, Project A.L.S.™ scientists led by Laskaro Zagariou, Robert Brownstone, Tom Jessell and Gareth Miles, identify C boutons, aspects of spinal interneurons, as "volume dials" for motor neurons. This discovery gives scientists a more complete picture of how the brain talks to muscles all over the body.
"The more we know about normal brain circuitry, the more effectively we can strategize therapeutics for a nervous system that is under attack by ALS," says Valerie Estess, director of research for Project A.L.S.™
View the complete article in Neuron
View the preview article in Neuron
January 14, 2010 — I suffer from a motor neuron disorder, in my case a variant of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS): Lou Gehrig's disease. Motor neuron disorders are far from rare: Parkinson's disease, multiple sclerosis, and a variety of lesser diseases all come under that heading. What is distinctive about ALS—the least common of this family of neuro-muscular illnesses—is firstly that there is no loss of sensation (a mixed blessing) and secondly that there is no pain. In contrast to almost every other serious or deadly disease, one is thus left free to contemplate at leisure and in minimal discomfort the catastrophic progress of one's own deterioration.
In effect, ALS constitutes progressive imprisonment without parole. First you lose the use of a digit or two; then a limb; then and almost inevitably, all four. The muscles of the torso decline into near torpor, a practical problem from the digestive point of view but also life-threatening, in that breathing becomes at first difficult and eventually impossible without external assistance in the form of a tube-and-pump apparatus. In the more extreme variants of the disease, associated with dysfunction of the upper motor neurons (the rest of the body is driven by the so-called lower motor neurons), swallowing, speaking, and even controlling the jaw and head become impossible. I do not (yet) suffer from this aspect of the disease, or else I could not dictate this text.
From The New York Review of Books
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/23531
Volume 57, Number 1 • January 14, 2010
View the complete article
Videos
CBS Evening News with Katie Couric - Treating Lou Gehrig's Disease, 07.02.09
Project A.L.S.™ Gala “Families” Video, 10.07.08
Inside the Project A.L.S.™ Jenifer Estess Stem Cell Laboratory, 10.16.07
Today Show - Jenifer Estess 1962-2003, 12.17.03
Today Show - Gene Therapy Breakthrough, 08.08.03
Major League Baseball Presents Project A.L.S.™ Day, 06.1.02
Today Show – Project A.L.S.™, 07.06.00
NBC Nightly News – Project A.L.S.™, 03.01.00
Charlie Rose – Project A.L.S.™, 02.16.00
