We launched the Challenge Me campaign last week. Challenge Me picks up where the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge left off. This time, we are challenging the world to do anything and everything they can to help end ALS.
Last week, Pete Frates and Pat Quinn unveiled a new campaign – Challenge Me -- to celebrate the fifth anniversary of the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge and reengage the millions around the world who took the Challenge. Pat and Pete brought the Challenge Me ethos to life with the Ice Bucket Challenge and they have continued to inspire the entire ALS community over the last five years.
The impact of an ALS diagnosis is profound – and not just for the person living with the disease. Daily activities, like making meals, doing laundry, mowing the lawn, and walking the dog, take a back seat when providing care for a family member with ALS.
Our Milton Safenowitz Postdoctoral Fellowship Program continues to support young scientists and is the only program of its kind specifically funding early ALS postdoctoral fellows.
Five years ago, we challenged our friends and family to dump buckets full of ice over their heads to raise awareness and funds for ALS. The rest is history. This year, we have a new message: Challenge Me.
Biogen has initiated a phase 3 clinical trial evaluating tofersen (previously called BIIB067), an antisense oligonucleotide (ASO), a type of antisense drug, targeting superoxide dismutase (SOD1), for the potential treatment of ALS. The trial is now enrolling and aims to enroll approximately 60 people with SOD1 ALS.
The ALS Association is pleased to announce a new scholarship program that will fund up to $5,000 per year for at least 30 students whose personal or family finances are compromised by the financial burden of ALS. The Jane Calmes ALS Scholarship Fund was established by Mark Calmes, vice chair of The ALS Association’s National Board of Trustees. The scholarship fund is named in honor of his late wife, Jane, who fought ALS for eight years and passed away in August 2017.
The ALS Association is proud to be a longtime supporter of the Airlie House ALS Clinical Trials Consensus Guidelines, which have been revised and published in Neurology, the most widely read and highly cited peer-reviewed neurology journal.
Next week at the American Academy of Neurology Meeting (AAN) in Philadelphia, Biogen will present promising results of the phase 1/2 study of its newly named investigational therapy tofersen (previously BIIB067), which is now enrolling in a phase 3 trial. Tofersen is an antisense oligonucleotide (ASO), a type of designer DNA drug, targeting SOD1.