Thanks to the ALS Association , the summer of 2014 will be eternally associated with videos of people pouring freeze water over their heads . While some knock the " Ice Bucket Challenge " as a classic example of"slacktivism,“or just another galling trend clogging their newsfeeds , the numbers ca n’t be denied : the challenge’s17 millionparticipants ended up bring up over $ 220 million for ALS ( amyotrophic lateral sclerosis ) research . The organization says it was likely the single largest episode of gift alfresco of a cataclysm event .
And now , one class later , scientist at Johns Hopkins are crediting a major find in ALS research to the viral fundraiser . According to researcherJonathan Ling , the gazillion of dollars donated has give him and his colleagues the financial freedom to follow up on “ high risk , mellow payoff ” experiment . This time , their endangerment seem to have paid off .
The breakthrough uncovering care with the mysteriousTDP-43 , a protein that can be found clumped outside the nuclei of wit electric cell of patients with ALS . In a field publish last workweek , the protein was found to break down in shiner and become incapable of properly decoding the DNA it was meant to . This caused the cubicle to die within a few day .
When researcher then insert a protein design to mimic TDP-43 into the nerve cell , cells fare back to liveliness and were fully restitute . This was an unbelievable breakthrough for the field , as treatment could have the potential to slow down or even hold back result of the disease , which is currently incurable .
The next step is to create a therapeutic example to address mice as whole organisms rather than just treating their cells . After that , researchers will hopefully be ready to move forward to clinical trial on people .
After last class ’s succeeder , the ALS Association intends to make the Ice Bucket Challenge a yearly happening to fund more groundbreaking research in the future . If a month ’s Charles Frederick Worth of undesirable television tag does indeed become an annual fixture , just remind yourself that it ’s all make a difference .
[ h / t : The Washington Post ]
