Ice Bucket Challenge donations lead to breakthrough in fight against ALS

Jamie Bullen27 July 2016

Donations generated by the Ice Bucket Challenge have funded a significant discovery in the fight against neurodegenerative disease ALS, a charity said.

The ALS Association said research by Project MinE has identified a new gene, known as NEK1, which contributes to the disease.

The charity donated $1 million to the study, which is the largest ever of inherited ALS, in the wake of the Ice Bucket Challenge which went viral in 2014.

Although only 10 per cent of ALS sufferers are diagnosed with the inherited form, experts believe genetics contribute to a much larger percentage.

The fundraising phenomenon raised $115 million (£87.7 million) from people pouring cold water over their heads and posting the footage on social media.

So far the donations have funded six research projects after it was dismissed as a stunt by some.

NEK1’s discovery was described as an “exciting new target” for drug development aimed to cure the disease.

Lucie Bruijn, chief scientist of the ALS Association, said: “The ALS Ice Bucket Challenge enabled The ALS Association to invest in Project MinE’s work to create large biorepositories to store ALS biosamples that are designed to allow exactly this kind of research and to produce exactly this kind of result.

“The sophisticated gene analysis that led to this finding is only possible because of the large number of ALS samples collected and made available by researchers .”

More than 17 million people uploaded videos, including celebrities who challenged each other after doing so.

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