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News Release
| For Immediate Release |
For more information contact:
Trish Gannon
Feinstein Kean Healthcare
617-761-6774
trish.gannon_no_spam_please_@i_mean_it.no_spam_whatsoever.fkhealth.com
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Accelerated Cure Project Reaches Half Way Mark in Building MS Repository, World's Largest Open Access Biobank for Multiple Sclerosis Research
Organization has collected 500 blood and tissue samples for MS Research
(Waltham, MA July 16, 2007) The Accelerated Cure Project for MS, a national nonprofit organization, today announced that in they have reached the half way mark in their drive to collect blood samples and data from 1,000 subjects across the country. After reaching the 1,000 subject milestone, the Accelerated Cure Project intends to continue collecting samples from as many as 10,000 subjects for its MS Respository. The repository is projected to become the largest openly accessible, multi-disciplinary collection of bio-samples ever assembled for use in Multiple Sclerosis (MS) research.
This is a major milestone for the Accelerated Cure Project, says Art Mellor, founder and CEO. Limited sample size is one of the most frequently cited reasons for inconclusive results in MS research. The repository lets us provide researchers with immediate access to a far greater number of samples than most scientists could collect themselves.
In addition to helping researchers overcome the obstacle of limited sample size, this repository will provide a common population of samples useful in a wide variety of disciplines, which will enable results from different research perspectives to be easily combined and correlated.
Subjects enrolled in the study will be followed over time to allow new samples to be taken and to record important changes in clinical status. Studying the same sample population over time, and pooling knowledge in a central database, is seen as a major step toward understanding what causes MS, thereby accelerating a cure for the nearly 2 million people worldwide afflicted with this disease.
About Accelerated Cure Project
Accelerated Cure Project is a national nonprofit organization whose mission is to accelerate the cure of multiple sclerosis (MS) by facilitating research that determines the causes and mechanisms of MS. Our primary strategic initiative is the establishment of the MS Repository, a large-scale collection of highly-characterized biosamples available to scientist at any organization who are conducting research that contributes to our mission. All data generated through analysis of MS Repository samples is contributed back to the Accelerated Cure Project, resulting in an increasingly valuable and comprehensive information resource that can be analyzed to reveal new insights about MS. For more information about the Accelerated Cure Project or to make a corporate or individual donation, call
781-487-0008, visit www.acceleratedcure.org, or send an email to info_no_spam_please_@i_mean_it.no_spam_whatsoever.acceleratedcure.org.
About Multiple Sclerosis
Multiple Sclerosis is a chronic demyelinating disorder of the central
nervous system that often results in severe disability including the
inability to walk, blindness, cognitive dysfunction, extreme fatigue
and other serious symptoms. MS affects over 400,000 people in the US
and 2 million individuals worldwide. The disorder occurs twice as
often in women as in men. The cause is not known and there is no
known cure.
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