The Ice Bucket Challenge, which went viral on social media from July 2014 to August 2014, actually raised enough money to help lead to a significant medical breakthrough in research for ALS, or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.
The ALS Association announced Monday that researchers part of the Project MinE’s global gene sequencing effort, which was funded through Ice Bucket Challenge donations, were able to identify a new gene, NEK1.
The NEK1 gene now “ranks among the most common genes that contribute to the disease, providing scientists with another potential target for therapy development,” the ALS Association said in a statement.
The Ice Bucket Challenge involved people dumping ice water over their heads to raise awareness for ALS. People nominated other people to dump water as well, and had 24 hours to comply or donate.
According to the ALS nonprofit, in just eight weeks in 2014, it received $115 million in donations because of the socially-driven fundraising campaign.
“Global collaboration among scientists, which was really made possible by ALS Ice Bucket Challenge donations, led to this important discovery,” Dr. John Landers at the University of Massachusetts Medical School said. “It is a prime example of the success that can come from the combined efforts of so many people, all dedicated to finding the causes of ALS. This kind of collaborative study is, more and more, where the field is headed.”
Landers led this ALS breakthrough study.
Money raised from the Ice Bucket Challenge helped researchers discover two other ALS-related genes in addition to this newer one, the organization said.
“The sophisticated gene analysis that led to this finding was only possible because of the large number of ALS samples available,” said Dr. Lucie Bruijin, chief scientist at the ALS Association. “The ALS Ice Bucket Challenge enabled the ALS Association to invest in Project MinE’s work to create large biorepositories of ALS biosamples that are designed to allow exactly this kind of research and to produce exactly this kind of result.”
ALS, commonly known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, involves the death of neurons that control voluntary muscles. Someone suffering from ALS has difficulty speaking, swallowing and eventually breathing. Its cause is not known in 90 to 95 percent of cases, with the rest of the cases being a result of inheritance from a person’s parents.
