Umeå researchers take on “ALS ice bucket challenge” - again!
NEWS
On Monday 24 August, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) researchers at Umeå University and the University Hospital of Umeå endured the 2015 “ALS Ice Bucket Challenge” by the campus pond to help raise awareness and funds to find treatments and a cure for the disease.
The challenge involves someone daring another to be filmed having a bucket of ice water poured on their heads and challenging others to do the same. It is common that those nominated have 24 hours to accept the challenge or forfeit by making a donation to charity.
ALS is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that affects nerve cells in the brain and the spinal cord. ALS is characterised by stiff muscles, muscle twitching, and gradually worsening weakness due to muscle wasting. This results in difficulty speaking, swallowing, and eventually breathing. At the present time, there is no cure for ALS. The disease affects about 2 people per 100,000 per year in Europe and the United States, and approximately 230 annually in Sweden.
Last year, a total of SEK 5 million was donated to ALS research as a direct result of the challenge and created a larger awareness of the disease. A significant amount of the donations were granted to Peter Andersen, Professor and Chief Physician at the Department of Pharmacology and Clinical Neuroscience, to fund Sweden’s contribution to Project MinE. The project is a joint European initiative to map the full DNA profiles of at least 15,000 people with ALS and compare them to DNA profiles of 7,500 control subjects to uncover associations between specific variations in genes and ALS.
”The ALS team in Umeå that works with health care and research related to ALS accepted the challenge last year, and we received such great support which helped us partake in a large collective Eureopean project. We are stronger together! New technical resources and the contribution of additional make it possible for the research to progress forward and more rapidly than ever before!” says Peter Andersen who, along with Stefan Marklund and all members of the ALS team in Umeå, are also leading a study to develop antibodies that can prevent ALS.
Donations for research are encouraged
The researchers are hoping that many donate money to support ALS research and suggest the following organisations:
