Team Project 3000 will take off tomorrow morning to cross the state of Iowa and to raise awareness on behalf of Project 3000 and Leber congenital amaurosis.
Tag: Leber congenital amaurosis
RAGBRAI for a cause: Project 3000 Seeks Cure for LCA
Dear Friends,
You can help us find a cure for blind children!
Chicago Cubs star Derrek Lee and Boston Celtics CEO and co-owner
Wyc Grousbeck — in partnership with the John and Marcia Carver
Nonprofit Genetic Testing Laboratory at The University of Iowa — are
combining their talents and energies to eradicate an inherited form of
blindness that has touched both of their families, Leber congenital
amaurosis or LCA. They call their effort Project 3000 because a central
part of their plan is to find every man, woman, and child affected with
LCA in the United States — about 3,000 people.
I will be riding my bicycle 475 miles across the state of Iowa
July 19-25, along with several other friends and supporters of Project
3000, as part of RAGBRAI, the Register's Annual Great Bike Ride Across
Iowa. To give some additional meaning and purpose to
a ride that is sure to be fun, the cyclists on Team Project 3000 and I
invite you to support the crucial work of Project 3000 at The
University of Iowa.
Feel free to make a gift of any amount you wish. If you would like
to make a per-mile-ridden gift, please take the amount per mile you
wish to give and multiply that times 475 (the number of miles I plan
ride) to get your gift amount.
I would offer an option for you to give by the pound (mine–on the
hoof), but that may prove to be too expensive for some of you. Instead,
as an extra incentive to give, I will provide prizes to those who guess
my weight at the end of the ride (after the celebratory beer and wine).
Also, I plan to do a blog or some other way to communicate about
the ride (I may be a twit, but right now I don't Twitter), so I will
keep you posted on this idea. If you want me to keep you updated,
please contact me at my email address: prosenthal@kelleydrye.com.
Thanks,
Paul
With just a few clicks of your mouse, please make a gift today to help fund Project 3000.
Simply
fill in the secure online gift form , and I will receive
notification of your gift. Your contribution will be put right to work
to help us with Project 3000. The University of Iowa Foundation (the
preferred channel for private support for Project 3000) will send a
receipt. ALL gifts will be used to support Project 3000.
Learn more about Project 3000 at www.carverlab.org/project3000/.
Thank you very much for your gift. Together, there is something you can do to provide HOPE.
Total Raised: $16,850.00
Big Ten Network Supports Project 3000
Derrek Lee of the Chicago Cubs and Wyc Grousbeck of the Boston Celtics share an uncommon bond. Each has a child with a rare genetic eye disease called Leber’s congenital amaurosis, otherwise known as LCA. Rare as this condition is, these two devoted fathers would probably not be aware of their similar experiences were it not for the efforts of Dr. Edwin Stone and his research team at the University of Iowa’s John and Marcia Carver Nonprofit Genetic Testing Laboratory. In their view, it is Dr. Stone who represents hope for the future of their children, and others like them. It is Dr. Stone’s powerful message that "there is something we can do" that has inspired the Lee and Grousbeck families to combine their talents and their resources to support the research that is currently being done.
The
initiative spearheaded by Derrek Lee and Wyc Grousbeck is known as Project 3000, named as such to reflect the estimated 3000 people in the United States living with LCA. One of the major goals of this ambitious effort is to find, and test, these 3000 people in order to advance the research. Research points to hope in terms of treatment and a possible cure, not only for LCA, but for other inherited eye diseases as well.
An informational video, produced to raise awareness and help spread the word, has been aired on the Big Ten Network. It has also been made available for viewing here.
To Learn More visit:
Derrek Lee’s 1st Touch Foundation
Project 3000: Believe the Unseen
UI contributes to gene therapy breakthrough for blinding eye disease
University of Iowa News Release
April 28, 2008
UI contributes to gene therapy breakthrough for blinding eye disease
Researchers
at the University of Iowa played a key role in a landmark gene therapy
breakthrough reported Sunday, April 27, in an online article in the New
England Journal of Medicine.
The study reported
improvement in vision following gene transfer to the retina in three
patients with an inherited form of blindness known as Leber congenital
amaurosis or LCA. The study was carried out at the Children’s Hospital
of Philadelphia by an international team led by the University of
Pennsylvania, the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, the Second
University of Naples and the Telethon Institute of Genetics and
Medicine (both in Italy), the UI and several other American
institutions.
This is the first report of successful gene
therapy of an inherited eye disease in humans. Although the patients
have not achieved normal eyesight, the preliminary results set the
stage for further studies of an innovative treatment for LCA and
possibly other retinal diseases. Patients’ vision improved from
detecting hand movements to reading lines on an eye chart.
Edwin
Stone, M.D., Ph.D., UI professor of ophthalmology and visual sciences
and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator, led the genetic
testing portion of the study. Stone’s group developed a method for
distinguishing disease-causing mutations from benign genetic variants,
and this method was used to choose the patients who were treated in the
gene therapy study. The Iowa group also developed a highly efficient
nonprofit testing strategy that has allowed genetic testing for LCA to
be offered on a national scale.
"This is a very exciting
day for everyone involved in caring for patients with inherited eye
disease," Stone said. "We are very pleased that the Carver Lab at the
University of Iowa was able to contribute to this important step
forward."
Among those recognizing the breakthrough were
John and Marcia Carver, members of the family who donated $10 million
in 2005 to create and name the John and Marcia Carver Nonprofit Genetic
Testing Laboratory and the associated Carver Family Center for Macular
Degeneration at the UI. "We were very happy to hear of this
extraordinary scientific result and excited that the Carver Lab had an
important hand in it," John Carver said.
The UI is also home to Project 3000 (http://www.project3000.org),
a philanthropically supported grassroots effort to find all 3,000
people in the United States affected with LCA and to offer them a
genetic test whether or not they have insurance coverage to pay for it.
Project
3000 was created in 2006 by Stone, Derrek Lee, who is first baseman of
the Chicago Cubs, and Wyc Grousbeck, who is co-owner and CEO of the
Boston Celtics. Lee and Grousbeck have children affected with LCA.
Continue reading “UI contributes to gene therapy breakthrough for blinding eye disease”
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