As well as raising money for a great cause, the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge led to a number of “fail videos” being uploaded onto social media platforms.
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The ALS Association is crediting money raised through the Ice Bucket Challenge for the discovery of a gene’s connection to the progressive disease.
“The ALS Ice Bucket Challenge enabled The ALS Association to invest in Project MinE’s work to create large biorepositories of ALS biosamples that are designed to allow exactly this kind of research and to produce exactly this kind of result”.
According to the ALS Association, NEK1 has multiple roles in neurons, including maintenance of the cytoskeleton as well as regulating the membrane of the mitochondrion, which supplies energy to neurons and in repairing DNA.
The researchers added that the NEK1 gene now ranks among the most common genes associated with the disease, and offers scientists another target for developing treatments for ALS.
ALS is also known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease.
“Global collaboration among scientists, which was really made possible by ALS Ice Bucket Challenge donations, led to this important discovery”, said John Landers of the University of Massachusetts Medical School. At the moment, those who fall victim usually die within two to five years, as there is no cure. In a study released Monday, Project MinE researchers say they have identified a gene, called NEK1, that is responsible for the disease, bringing them one step closer to treating the neurological disorder.
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An estimated 10 percent of ALS cases are inherited, while 90 percent of patients do not have a family history.
