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Prize4Life Challenge Based on the PRO-ACT Database
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July 11, 2012
Collaborative Prize Competition May Unlock Mysteries of Disease Progression in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) Patients
Challenge Seeks Accurate Predictive Indicators for Disease Progression to Pave the Way for Clinical Trials for Potential New Treatments
Boston, Mass. – July 11, 2012
Prize4Life, a partner of NEALS, announced today their DREAM-Phil Bowen ALS Prediction Prize4Life, or “ALS Prediction Prize,” in collaboration with IBM’s DREAM Project. The challenge, which consists of predicting future progression of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, and which comes with a prize of up to $25,000, will be run by innovation and crowdsourcing pioneer InnoCentive, Inc.
The new Prize4Life Challenge is based on the PRO-ACT database, developed by the Neurology Clinical Trials Unit (NCTU) at Massachusetts General Hospital and funded by the ALS Therapy Alliance. The ALS Prediction Prize will use a subset of the PRO-ACT database which upon completion will contain clinical data for over 7,500 ALS patients from completed clinical trials. The full database will be available for research purposes by year’s end.
“We are thrilled to work with Prize4Life on this important new prize initiative,” said Merit Cudkowicz, Neurology Chief at Massachusetts General Hospital and Co-Chair of the Northeast ALS Consortium, the largest ALS research consortium in the world. “There are huge opportunities to learn more about ALS from existing databases of clinical data. This collaborative effort will attract new investigators to the ALS field and improve understanding of ALS.”
Ultimately, it is expected that the solution resulting from this Challenge will improve disease prediction and lead to more accurate methods of predicting progression earlier on in the course of the disease.
To learn more about the Prize please visit: http://www.prize4life.org/page/prizes/predictionprize.
About NEALS
The Northeast ALS Consortium (NEALS) is an international, independent, non-profit group of researchers who collaboratively conduct clinical research in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) and other motor neuron diseases. Their mission is to translate scientific advances into new treatments for people with ALS and motor neuron disease as rapidly as possible. NEALS has over 100 member sites in the United States, Canada, Ireland, and Israel.
About Prize4Life
Prize4Life is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization whose mission is to accelerate the discovery of treatments and a cure for ALS (Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, also known as Lou Gehrig's disease) by using powerful incentives to attract new people and drive innovation. Prize4Life believes that solutions to some of the biggest challenges in ALS research will require out-of-the-box thinking, and that some of the most critical discoveries may come from unlikely places. Founded in 2006 by Avi Kremer, who was diagnosed with ALS at the age of 29, Prize4Life encourages and rewards creative approaches that will yield real results for ALS patients. For more information, visit www.prize4life.org.
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