[bostoncure.org] Status since 10/14/02

[Art Mellor]

Boston Cure Project informal status since last reported on 10/14/02:

>>> Joining Us This Month

This past month Sue Mellor joined us as a part-time volunteer admin,
helping out Andii in keeping things running. Sue's connection to the
Boston Cure Project is that she is Art's mom! Her bio is available
here:

http://www.bostoncure.org/default.php?nav=bcp&topic=people&bio=SueMellor

>>> Cure Map

In the past month we took our Tissue Bank proposal on the road and met
with a number of scientists to get their input and feedback. Everyone
was very positive and thinks that this sort of a resource is sorely
needed. We met with:

 o Matthew Mayerson at the Dana Farber
 o At UT Southwestern we saw: Michael Racke, Elliot Frohman, Amy
   Locke-Racke, Kathleen Hawker, Nancy Monson, and Nitin Karandikar
   They all work at a research lab associated with one of the largest
   MS clinics in the country.
 o At UCSF we saw: Steve Hauser, Jorge Oksenberg, Claude Genain,
   & Scott Zamvil
 o At the Brigham & Women's we met with Howard Weiner

We have also begun crafting the study protocol and informed consent
documents to allow us to collect blood samples for the tissue bank. We
have also had our first meeting with the budgeting department with one
of the clinics we are targetting collection from.

>>> Education

MSNews (http://msnews.bostoncure.org) continues to grow in hits and
continues to have daily updates on news about MS.

Stacy Schwartz (our summer intern from HBS) presented the results of
her analysis of the US Healthcare market as a class.

>>> Community Building

The Fall Newsletter has been printed, mailed, and posted to our web
site:
http://www.bostoncure.org/default.php?nav=news&topic=documents

We met with a company called Entelos that makes software to model
biological systems to help run experiments "in-silico"

We had a chance to present to some doctors visiting Boston from
Sweden and Lebanon over at the Beth Israel

Art had another meeting with Richard Slifka, currently stepping down
as a board member at the NMSS.

>>> Events

This Saturday we will be hosting our Second Annual Boston Cure Party
for Multiple Sclerosis. We are approaching 300 people signed up!
http://www.bostoncure.org/default.php?nav=rsvp

>>> Fundraising

Remember, you can support our efforts by contributing:
http://www.bostoncure.org/default.php?nav=involved

We've recently engaged the services of a professional fundraising
organization called Carlton & Company. They are running a special
program to help smaller nonprofits in Massachusetts and will be
helping us run some fundraising events.

The Anna Peabody Fund is starting to pick up some steam. If anyone
else is interested in starting a named fund to help us raise money,
please contact us. You can get an idea of what this involves by
looking at:
http://www.annapeabody.org

Sue Libby hosted a suprise party for her husband Cole's birthday and
asked guests to make contributions to the Boston Cure Project

>>> Volunteer Efforts Not Mentioned Elsewhere 
Angela continues to help with postings to MSNews
Katherine Mosley has been a huge help with Operation Missing Link
Matt Wise is helping set up a secure FTP server
Anne Reed and Sue Mellor helped make invite calls for the Annual Event

-- 
...............................................................................
    Art Mellor     : HTTP> http://www.bostoncure.org : Boston Cure Project
art at bostoncure.org :       * Donate Online *         : for Multiple Sclerosis
Cell> 617/899-2360 : Main> 781/788-0880              : Fax> 781/788-8118

     Even when the experts all agree, they may well be mistaken.
			 -- Bertrand Russell