[acp-status] since last reported on 11/14/05

[Art Mellor]

Accelerated Cure Project informal status since last reported on 11/14/05:

Information on our other mailing lists is at the bottom of this message.

>>> Joining/Leaving Us This Month

o Pat Phelps has officially joined our Volunteer Staff
  http://www.acceleratedcure.org/about/people.php?section=3&id=79

>>> Cure Map/Sample Repository

o We held kick-off meetings with two key vendors for our main study
  (DSG and Omnicare) this month.  They are both up to speed now and
  getting lots of things done.  We also signed a contract with our
  sample storage vendor, GCI, so our main vendors are all in place
  now.

o Sara, Art and Hollie met with a cross-functional research team at
  Johns Hopkins to get their ideas and viewpoints on a number of
  important repository topics.

o The pilot study is proceeding well, with UMass Memorial continuing to 
  enroll many new subjects.

o Sara and Art attended a biobanking seminar and heard about the
  sample management system developed by Millenium Pharmaceuticals.

Cure Map:

o The Phase 2 Toxic Agents documents are complete and have been sent
  to an external reviewer for comments.  The Phase 2 Nutrition
  documents should follow shortly.

o Plans are taking shape for the Infectious Agents in MS workshop, to
  be held as a satellite of an HHV-6 scientific conference scheduled
  for early May.  Hollie is working with NIH scientist Steve Jacobson
  and HHV-6 Foundation executive director Kristin Loomis to bring this
  meeting together.

>>> Fundraising

o It's that time of year when nonprofits like us make their final push
  to raise funds.  If you've never made a contribution to us, please
  consider a $25 donation.  You can make it right now by credit card
  or send us a check.  Instructions are here:
  http://www.acceleratedcure.org/about/contribute.php

>>> Education

o The Kelly Packowski MS Foundation recently provided a grant to fund
  the publication and distribution of Accelerated Cure Project's
  educational booklet, "So You Have MS... What's Next." It's currently
  available as a PDF, but now we can send it out to neurology offices.
  http://www.acceleratedcure.org/downloads/bcp-ms-whatsnext.pdf

o Our Winter newsletter is available for download as a PDF here:
  http://www.acceleratedcure.org/downloads/acp-update-vol0404.pdf
  Printed copies will be going out in January.

o Scott Feier continues to work on our database of MS drug targets.

o We have a new poll up on MSNews:
  Did you come out at work about your MS?
  http://msnews.acceleratedcure.org/pollBooth.pl?qid=13

o MSNews (http://msnews.acceleratedcure.org) continues to run daily updates
  on MS related items. If you come across anything MS related and new
  on the web, please submit it to our site. 

>>> Community Building

o Art and Melissa met with supporter, David Pulsifer, who has recently
  joined our Advisory Board.  Look for his bio in next month's status
  report.

o Art and Melissa met with Katherine Bradshaw of Medtronic to learn
  more about their Baclofen pump for spasticity and discuss ideas for
  future educational program partnerships.

o Art attended a FasterCures meeting in Palm Springs (boo hoo! :-) to
  discuss ways innovative philanthropists could support disease
  related research taking place in organizations like ours.

o Melissa attended a workshop in New York city on "Building Nonprofit
  Partnerships for Medical Research Innovation" co-hosted by
  FasterCures (http://fastercures.org) and Esquire magazine.
  Representatives from more than 50 disease research nonprofits,
  biopharmaceutical companies, venture capital firms, and Wall Street
  analysts all gathered to discuss how the nonprofit and business
  communities might work together to cure diseases faster.

o We had a number of meetings with various people:
  - Ronenn Roubenoff from our Pharma Advisory Board helped us
    understand the some of the benefits of repositories for the drug
    industry 
  - Sophie Audette from SubscriberMail is offering help to make our
    newsletters a more fancy.
  - Art spoke with Karen from MSWorld about how we might team up
  - Art spoke at Babson about starting Accelerated Cure Project
  - Art spoke to Clara from Cure Autism Now about their repository
  - Art and Hollie met with Augusto Odone and Eric Hovde of the Myelin
    Project in DC.

o Press
  - Return Path press release
    http://www.acceleratedcure.org/news/pr/20051129_returnpath.php
  - The press release announcing our distribution of samples to the
    Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation resulted in some nice TV
    coverage for the MS group there.

o As always, a few more T-shirt pictures are available:
  http://www.acceleratedcure.org/events/tshirt.php

>>> Events

o Pictures from our Fifth Annual Accelerated Cure Party are up:
  http://www.acceleratedcure.org/events/eventpages/20051029_bcp_party.php#Start

o Enjoy a Taste of Tuscany at the Kelly Packowski MS Foundation's Fourth 
  Annual Wine Tasting and Auction Saturday, January 28th 2006 from 7:00 pm to 
  midnight at the Boston Harbor Hotel Boston, MA: 
  http://www.acceleratedcure.org/events/eventpages/20060128_kpmsf.php

o Thanks to

  - New England Assistive Technology Marketplace (NEAT) and Mark Pare
    of Independence Technology, Art and Melissa attended a
    demonstration of the iBot mobility system in Hartford, CT.

  - Joanne Fantini, Nan Silverman and John Moore for choosing 
    Accelerated Cure Project as the beneficiary of their annual holiday party 
    at The Navy Yard Bistro in Charlestown, MA

  - The Hair and I Salon in Orleans, MA, who hosted their first Cuts 
    to Cure MS Salon-a-thon

  - Fillipo Paolini, Andrea LaRosa, and Sergio Paolini for
    volunteering their stylist talents at Capriccio
    Salon's first Cuts to Cure MS event in Cambridge, MA

>>> Operations

o We've all been cranking on budget numbers and Annual Report text for
  the 2006 year

o Cindy Elia has joined our Donor Database project, helping with the
  graphic design of the user interface.

o We have ACP t-shirts available, including youth and toddler sizes.
  Send us your size and address and we'll send you one.  Then send us
  a picture of you wearing it.

o The organization's name change from Boston Cure Project to
  Accelerated Cure Project is now complete.  We have been making the
  change gradually over the course of the year, including changes to
  our letterhead, emails, newsletter, etc.  The official state filings
  now list Accelerated Cure Project as the organization name.

o Julie went out to lunch with Susan and Dora of the Spaulding & Slye
  building management team.  They will be leaving the office park this
  week when the building comes under new ownership.


>>> Volunteer Efforts that have been reported since last time

November Volunteers

Administrative Assistant
Susan Mellor

Administration and Fundraising
Jackie Bollens

Administrative Work
Bill Meyer
Cindy Elia
Joyce Ananian
Peter Schmidt

Cuts to Cure MS 2005
Carla Hyatt
Deirdre Kovalcik
Dusty Hyatt
Joy Lynn Palmer
Kelly Henson
Laurie Nance
Leslie Hamilton
Lori Jo Holloran
Maria Rooy
Peg Rouchette
Rebecca Ferguson
Tim Thalmann
Wannie Chung

Donor Database
Dave Kaffine

FitSense Fundraising
Jonathan Martel
Lauren Smith


Greater Cincinnati Cure Project Wine Tasting
Diana Wilson
Elenora Fusco
Ingo Kiesewetter
Rick Wilson
Ursula Hicks
Jodi Supinski
Kemp Jaycox

Letter Writing Campaign
Rosalind Joffe

MRI Economics Paper
Rob Lester

Neuroanatomy Paper
Jennifer Tobin

Rub Out Stress 2005
Carrie Moore

Sysadmin project
Scott Tamosunas

Contributed Goods and Services
Clockwork Design Group, Inc.
Clock Tower Law Group
Jacqui McCoy


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