The second track of Prize4Life's ALS Biomarker Challenge offers a prize of up to $1,000,000 for the first validated ALS biomarker submitted that meets the established requirements. Those submitting a solution must provide statistically significant results as proof of the validity of the solution. The $1,000,000 prize is still open, and all are encouraged to compete. Please sign up with InnoCentive to join the competition, view prize criteria, and submit your solution. Please also register with Prize4Life to hear about opportunities and resources related to this prize as they become available.
Track 2 Progress & Discovery Prize Winners
Other Track 2 Submissions
Progress & Discovery Prize Winners
In April 2009, Prize4Life reviewed its first round of submitted solutions and awarded Progress and Discovery Prizes to teams that made significant progress toward the goal of this prize challenge. Dr. Harvey Arbesman and Dr. Seward Rutkove were honored for these findings (you can also download this information [PDF]):
Harvey Arbesman, MD MS, is a board-certified dermatologist and one of the winners of a 2007 Prize4Life Thought Prize, which was designed to award the best theoretical solutions to finding an ALS biomarker. Dr. Arbesman, who had never conducted ALS-related research prior to this challenge, received a Discovery Prize for his team's identification of a potential skin-based biomarker that could function as a biologic correlate of ALS. Dr. Arbesman's team, comprised of researchers from
Columbia's Neurology and Dermatology departments, adapted a technology used in the cosmetic industry, the Cutometer, to non-invasively measure skin elasticity to see whether changes in this property of skin correlate with disease progression in ALS patients. Read more about Dr. Arbesman's solution.
Seward Rutkove, MD, an ALS researcher and clinician who has worked in the ALS field for more than 10 years, received a Progress Prize for his proposed biomarker based on the observation that electrical current flows differently through healthy vs. diseased muscle tissue and these changes in current flow can be sensitively measured. His team is developing handheld technologies capable of taking these highly sensitive measurements to determine how changes in current flow correlate with disease progression in ALS patients. Read more about Dr. Rutkove's solution.
Other Track 2 Submissions
In addition to these two winners, we received many submissions from research teams who are pursuing a variety of different ideas. Below are some of the approaches currently being explored (you can also download this information [PDF]):
- An ALS Biomarker comprised of measurements of several immunological parameters that are altered in individuals with the disease
- An ALS Biomarker based on measuring changes in electrical activity in the spine
- An ALS Biomarker involving changes in particular inflammatory cytokines
- An ALS Biomarker based on use of a novel computer assisted modification of traditional transcranial magnetic stimulation
- An ALS Biomarker based upon using deep search computational methods of Biological Databases to analyze differences within non-coding RNA regions
- An ALS Biomarker based on specific changes measured in human mesenchymal stem cells derived from the bone marrow of ALS patients
- An ALS Biomarker based on using calorimetry to detected changes in ALS patients' resting energy expenditure levels
PRIZE TRACK 1
