ALS Ice Bucket Challenge
New
research projects across the country dedicated to solving ALS, also
known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, have begun to receive millions of dollars in
additional funding thanks to this year’s Ice Bucket Challenge. The
funding marks the ALS Association’s first move toward distributing the $115
million it raised to fight the disease.
“We are
tripling the amount annually that we spend on research,” said ALS Association
President Barbara Newhouse. “We have a sense of urgency, but we also recognize
that we have to be good stewards of the donor dollars as we move this
forward as quickly as researchers can research.”
Some of the first projects to receive
funding include one trying to sequence the genes of 15,000 people with ALS, one
partnering with pharmaceutical companies to advance drug treatment, and
one developing gene therapy that might reduce the spread of the disease through
the body. Hospitals and labs around the world that have received funding are
Cedars-Sinai in Los Angeles , the University of California San
Francisco , the New
York Genome Center
In addition to funding research, the Ice
Bucket Challenge money will be used to improve treatment for people living with
disease, Newhouse said.
Despite the organization’s now-deeper
pockets, Newhouse insists that it will take time before the group will
determine fully how to best leverage its influx in cash. Newhouse said
she’s been “inundated with proposals” for research projects, and they continue
to arrive in her inbox.
“It’s been
amazing how many people have come out of the woodwork to say ‘I have the
answer,’” she said. “We’re trying to sort through what’s fact and what’s
fiction.”
And, while $100 million represents a marked
increase in funding for the fight against ALS, Newhouse said it’s more of a
starting point than the key to a solution.
Newhouse thinks the funding could lead to a
breakthrough—”I’m always a glass half-full kind of person,” she said. “But we
would be kidding ourselves if anybody believed that $100 million is going to be
all that’s needed to find an effective treatment.”
Resource:http://time.com/topic/als-ice-bucket-challenge-2/
Structure
of the Lead：
WHO- New research projects across the country
WHEN-yesterday
WHAT- have begun to receive millions of dollars in additional funding
WHY- dedicated to solving ALS
WHERE-not given
HOW- thanks to this year’s Ice Bucket Challenge.
Keywords：
1.
ALS肌萎缩性脊髓侧索硬化症
2.
donor 捐贈者
3.
pharmaceutical大型製藥公司
4.
fund 基金 籌募資金
5.
leverage 影響
6.
sort 分類
7.
treatment 療法
