Hope for Gus Foundation

The Hope for Gus Fundation's primary function is to fund scientific research for a cure or treatment of Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy. During 2015 we provided six grants to scientists around the country who are working on a variety of strategies to treat the disease.

A third goal of the Hope for Gus Foundation is to build collaboration within the Duchenne community so that we can create efficiencies in the scientific review process and leverage the funding of a number of small foundations in order to have a larger impact. To that end, we co-sponsored a conference in March and hosted a meeting in June. Attendees were small foundations and scientists.

The Hope for Gus Foundation also seeks to raise awareness of the disease through education, and public awareness campaigns. Last year's effort focused on a trip that we led to Everest base camp. We established a significant social media presence and we took a documentary filmaker along for a documentary that was released in 2016. We will use that film to build awareness and raise funds through film festivals and public showings. We used the trip to both educate others about Duchenne and to inspire online donations.

In order to give grants to the most deserving scientists, Hope for Gus consults with experts in the field and collaborated with other foundations to form a scientific review process.