[Source: PRNewswire-USNewswire] – Project for Multiple Sclerosis, a national nonprofit organization, today announced that they have completed their initial drive to collect one thousand blood and data samples to build the largest openly accessible, multi-disciplinary repository ever assembled for use in Multiple Sclerosis (MS) research.
“This is a major milestone for the Accelerated Cure Project”, says Art
Mellor, founder of the Accelerated Cure Project. “Limited sample size is
one of the most frequently cited reasons for inconclusive results in MS
research. Our repository provides researchers with immediate access to a
far greater number of samples than most scientists could collect
themselves.”
In addition, the repository will provide a common population of samples
useful for a wide variety of different studies, which will enable results
from different research perspectives to be easily combined and correlated.
The repository contains various types of samples and data that can support
scientists working in many fields – genetics, nutrition, virology, and
more. Researchers gaining access to the repository must return their
results to the database to be shared with other researchers; this will
allow cross-correlation of their results with all other studies performed
using the same samples.
Subjects enrolled in the repository 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 a major step toward understanding what causes MS,
thereby accelerating a cure.
Additionally, samples and data are collected from a number of other
similar diseases including Transverse Myelitis, Neuromyelitis Optica, ADEM,
and Optic Neuritis to enable studies in these rare neurological disorders
and to provide controls for MS studies.
Collection Sites
Contributing to the success of the project is an impressive list of
research centers across the country that have joined Accelerated Cure
Project as collection sites for the repository. These include Johns Hopkins
Medical Center (Baltimore, MD), University of Massachusetts Memorial
Medical Center (Worcester, MA), University of Texas Southwestern (Dallas,
TX), Multiple Sclerosis Research Center of New York (New York, NY), Barrow
Neurological Institute (Phoenix, AZ) and the Shepherd Center (Atlanta, GA).
The Accelerated Cure Project intends to continue collecting samples
from as many as 10,000 subjects for its MS Repository. If you have MS (or
another demyelinating disease) or are related to someone with MS and would
like to participate in the project, please call 781/487-0008, visit
acceleratedcure.org/repository, or send an email to
info-web1207@acceleratedcure.org.
About Accelerated Cure Project
Accelerated Cure Project for Multiple Sclerosis,
http://www.acceleratedcure.org, is a national nonprofit organization dedicated to
curing Multiple Sclerosis (MS) by determining its causes. Accelerated Cure
Project believes this effort can be accelerated by organizing the research
process and encouraging collaboration between research organizations and
clinicians. A “Cure Map” is currently being developed by the Accelerated
Cure Project to establish what is known and what is not known about the
causes of MS. From the Cure Map, Accelerated Cure Project will facilitate
research most likely to reveal the causes of MS in the shortest time
through a large-scale, multidisciplinary, MS Repository. For more
information about the Accelerated Cure Project or to make a corporate or
individual donation, call 781/487-0008, visit acceleratedcure.org, or send
an email to info-web1207@acceleratedcure.org.