After a year, 100% of the donations raised during the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge were spent on extensive research, Project A.L.S said on a statement.
"I am proud to report that every dollar of the $560k that Project A.L.S. received during the Ice Bucket Challenge by over 6150 new donors has been spent effectively to move research in the direction of therapeutic discovery for ALS," said Meredith Estess, president of Project A.L.S. (via PRNewsWire)
The ALS Ice Bucket Challenge begun in mid-summer of 2014 which started by two ALS patients that have spurred on social media in which called out on the challenge will post a vide and dump a cold water on themselves and challenge three friends to do the same or donate to the A.L.S Project.
TNW also revealed that ALS Association spent "$47.1 million, has been spent or budgeted toward specific purposes," while $77 million, representing 67 percent of the money raised, went to scientists, researchers, and doctors searching for a treatment or cure to the disease.
While Project A.L.S said that scientists are now testing a hypothesis that lipids may provide the first reliable biomarker for ALS and "already point to four well known cellular pathways involved in neuroinflammation that, if targeted with the right drugs, may allow us to slow the disease."
"Thanks to the Ice Bucket Challenge, we now have a rough draft list of the genes that make the motor neurons that survive in ALS different from others," Valerie Estess added.
"The next goal is to use this newfound information to make weak motor neurons stronger."
"The Ice Bucket Challenge was really fun-no one wants to throw cold water on that. But many of those who participated in last year's challenge are gone now. ALS research is serious business and it needs our attention every year until we treat and cure ALS."
