History

In June of 2000, Art Mellor was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis after visiting his doctor with complaints of numbness, tingling, and bladder dysfunction. His primary care physician at Mount Auburn Hospital in Cambridge put him in touch with a neurologist who, after some blood-work, an examination, and a couple of MRIs, made the diagnosis.

Given the magnitude of such a diagnosis, Art sought a second opinion. Through contacts with a friend who works at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, he was introduced to Dr. Timothy Vartanian. Dr. Vartanian was able to confirm the diagnosis and agreed to take Art on as a patient.

A serial entrepreneur by career, Art was used to solving problems he encountered in a proactive fashion. Searches on the Internet, reading books targeted to laypersons, then text books and research papers, and meetings with several MS researchers from both the academic and pharmaceutical worlds began to paint a picture that indicated a cure for MS was not forthcoming any time soon.

Art decided he would have to leave the start-up company he had founded 3 years prior and get personally involved. Not having a medical background, he decided doing research directly would not be the best use of his talents. Rather, he chose to leverage his engineering and entrepreneurial skills of fund raising, recruiting, project managment, and getting things started from scratch to build an organization that could work on the problem.

While meeting with Dr. Vartanian during an examination, Art complained about the apparent lack of solid information and direction in the MS research world. Dr. Vartanian agreed and expressed his similar desires to take a different approach. What followed was a series of meetings that resulted in the formation of the Boston Cure Project with Art Mellor and Dr. Vartanian as the founders.

In 2005 the Boston Cure Project began a more formal national expansion under the umbrella name Accelerated Cure Project for Multiple Sclerosis, with the Boston Cure Project as the national headquarters and New England affiliate.

A more detailed history can be found in our Status Email archives.