The result of the 2014 Ice Bucket Challenge gave the ALS community a tremendous gift: awareness and unprecedented investment in ALS research. Thanks to the viral fundraising phenomenon that year, along with matched funds from Brain Canada (through the Canada Brain Research Fund with financial support from Health Canada), the investment of $20 million allowed the ALS Canada Research Program to fund more of the highest-quality ALS research with the most promise to slow down or even stop the disease.
Over the past four years, ALS Canada has invested over $25 million into ALS research across the country – a responsibility we take seriously, with great care and consideration. We are proud to say that the donations generated from the 2014 Ice Bucket Challenge are nearly fully committed and we want you to know what your donor dollars contributed to.
Decisions around investment of ALS Canada research projects are based on results from a rigorous peer-review process. Independent panels of international scientific experts assess research proposals to identify projects that are grounded in scientific excellence and have the potential to most quickly advance the field of ALS research in order to develop effective treatments.
Examples of research funded through the ALS Canada Research Program:
- Understanding why eye muscles are often more resistant to ALS, and what we can learn from this that can help to preserve the function of other muscles;
- Determining whether there is a connection between ALS and viral infections;
- Testing a drug called pimozide to determine its ability to slow the progression of ALS;
- Learning about how a particular protein in ALS can be responsible for the spread of the disease within a person.
Thanks to donor generosity, ALS Canada and provincial ALS Societies across Canada are working to find the answers we need to create a future without ALS. Learn more about all the projects funded from 2014-2017 in the report below.