The mocked trending Ice Bucket Challenge movement did help a lot after all. Two summers ago, the challenge became a huge trend wherein a person has to dump ice cold water on himself or herself, record it in a video and challenge anyone they know to spread the cause and raise money for research into amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also known as A.L.S.
Supporters ended up raising over $115 million for the A.L.S. Association.
Over two years, the money raised from the challenge has helped fund the research and development of treatment drugs. Some of it has been used as prize money to entice people to design technology for people living with the disease, which causes a rapid breakdown in a person's ability to control muscle movement.
The association released a chart last year showing where the funds went:
- $77 million, or 67 percent, went to research.
- $23 million, or 20 percent, went to patient and community services.
- $10 million, or 9 percent, went to public and professional education.
- $3 million, or 2 percent, went to fund-raising.
- And $2 million, roughly another 2 percent, went to payment processing fees.
The latest development lead researchers to discovery of NEK1, the most common genes that contribute to the disease and is associated with 3 percent of A.L.S. cases. The discovery was published in Nature Genetics. It is the result of a global gene-sequencing effort involving 11 countries and 80 researchers, called Project MinE.
The challenge's raised money allowed the association to invest $1 million in Project MinE.
Though the discover of NEK1 is not yet a breakthrough, it is still significant in the study. According to Brian Frederick, executive vice president for communications and development for A.L.S. Association, the discovery of the gene could eventually mean that "treatments won't be limited to one subset of people with A.L.S., but that it might be a more broad group."
The movement started July 2014 with Pete Frates, a former college baseball player who was diagnosed with the disease in 2012. It was then followed by celebrities such as Mark Zuckerberg and other big celebrities.
Though critics disparaged the movement as "slacktivism" or an outright racket, the movement has shown that everyone can be united when it comes to such cause.
Source: The New York Times
Share It To Your Friends!
Loading...