Prize4life

Prize4life is an innovative "results-based not-for-profit organization. Effective treatments and a cure for als are the organization's most highly prized results; we reward results regardless of the scientific discipline from which they originated. Creative innovation: we believe that the solutions to some of the biggest challenges in als research may require out-of-the-box thinking, and some of the most critical discoveries could come from unlikely places. We encourage and reward creative approaches that will yield real results for als patients. Global als collaboration: als observes no geographic boundaries and neither does Prize4life. Prize4life values the sharing of ideas, information, and knowledge among a wide variety of research sectors around the globe as well as within the organization itself. Prize4life is committed to facilitating collaboration as an effective means to the fulfillment of its mission. Efficiency/leverage: als patients deserve a cure today and we hope to find it for them, working quickly and without waste of time or resources. We identify and partner to develop the necessary missing tools, resources, and projects that will transform the als drug development landscape. We proactively seek to learn where other als-related organizations are focusing their efforts in order to avoid creating redundancies. The prizes: in november 2006, Prize4life launched its first prize challenge, a $1 million award to be given for the discovery of a clinically relevant biomarker for als that could easily and effectively track disease progression. In may 2007, with a $75,000 donation from the kraft family, Prize4life awarded five thought prizes of $15,000 each to teams who proposed the best theoretical solutions for discovering a biomarker for als. We continued to work towards awarding the $1 million biomarker prize and set a submission deadline of november 6, 2008. Prize4life received 12 submissions from 7 different countries. In 2009, Prize4life awarded two submissions prizes of $50,000 each to recognize the progress and potential of their work. The $1 million prize was re-opened with a rolling deadline ending may 2011, and was ultimately awarded to dr. seward rutkove in february of 2011 for the development of a biomarker that utilized electrical impedance myography. In october 2008, Prize4life launched its second major prize: a $1 million award for a therapy that reliably and effectively extends the life of als mice by 25%. Named after Prize4life's founder and ceo at the request of an anonymous donor, the $1 million avi kremer als treatment prize had a rolling deadline, which was closed to submissions on october 15, 2010. Prize4life received 13 submissions from 4 countries. In 2012, Prize4life re-launched the $1 million avi kremer als treatment prize. The prize closed in june 2015 and received 16 submissions. One submission was selected to advance to the second phase of the prize, which entails independent validation and testing of the therapeutic in a second laboratory. This validation study was completed in 2016. The third party laboratory was able to confirm that the treatment did meet the prize criteria, in fact, the testing showed that the gene therapy extended survival in the sod1 mouse model by over 50%. The winning team of drs. Martine barkats and maria grazia biferi was awarded the prize in april 2017. In addition, in 2012 Prize4life launched the als prediction prize for an algorithm capable of improving clinician's ability to predict a given patient's disease progression. Over 1,000 teams competed for this prize and 3 teams were awarded $50,000 in prizes in october 2012. The results of the prize were published in nature biotechnology in 2014, and one of the winning teams has launched a startup company to further develop their award-winning approach for als and other diseases.