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<table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" bgcolor="#FFFFFF"> <tr> <td><span class=default> <!-- startprint --> <span class=default><p>Prize4Life announced its $1 million ALS/MND Biomarker Challenge on November 6, 2006. <a title="" href="/page/4841">Track 1</a> of the competition closed in May 2007. <a title="" href="/page/4844">Track 2</a> closed in early 2009 while the first round of submissions was being reviewed. This track has now re-opened. </p> <p>Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis is characterized by selective death of motor neurons in the brain and spinal cord. This leads to muscle weakness, atrophy, and gradual paralysis. At present, there is no effective therapy for the disease and patients usually die within 2-5 years after the onset of symptoms. The only treatment currently in use for ALS patients is Riluzole, which extends the survival of the patients by approximately 3 months. <br> <br>There are currently no precise measures of ALS disease progression that allow for short term monitoring of the disease and the assessment of treatment efficacy. In clinical trials, survival time is therefore used as the primary measure of effectiveness. This requires large numbers of patients over a long period of time, usually an average of well over a year. These factors make ALS clinical trials very expensive and constitute the main obstacle to phase II (proof of concept) clinical trials of novel drugs for the treatment of ALS. In order to make advances in the therapy of ALS, a more fine-grained measure of ALS disease progression is therefore crucial. <br> <br>Prize4Life is therefore interested in a biomarker that will allow robust assessment of disease progression in ALS. The proposed measure could be any biological correlate(s) of the disease, or a combination thereof, as long as it is suitable as a biomarker. Ideally, it would be highly sensitive, inexpensive, and easily performed in a clinical laboratory environment. <br> <br>Thus, the aim of the ALS Biomarker Prize Challenge is to find a biomarker that will <strong>reduce the cost of Phase II ALS proof of concept clinical trials to less than 5 million USD</strong> by shortening the duration of the trial, or reducing the number of patients required (or both). <br> <br>The Prize4Life Biomarker Prize is divided into two tracks - theoretical submissions and data-driven submissions. <p><a title="" href="/page/4841">Learn more about Track 1 (theoretical submissions)</a></p> <p><a title="" href="/page/4844">Learn more about Track 2 (data-driven submissions)</a></p> <p>Track 1 i closed to further submissions. Track 2 has re-opened, and all are encouraged to compete. Please <a title="" href="http://gw.innocentive.com/ar/disciplineSearch?challenge-order-by=desc&challenge-sort-by=postedDate&viewMode=abstract&challenge-search-text=8305421&challenge-search-button.x=34&challenge-search-button.y=18">sign up with InnoCentive</a> to join the competition, review prize criteria, and submit your solution. Please also <a title="" href="/page/3474">register with Prize4Life</a> to hear about opportunities and resources related to this prize as they become available.</p></span> <!-- stopprint --> </span></td> </tr> </table>
