Prize4Life Celebrates One Year Anniversary of $1 Million ALS Biomarker Challenge
Nonprofit Using Incentives to Stimulate Research toward a Cure

BOSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Prize4Life, a nonprofit organization founded to accelerate research in Lou Gehrig's disease, is celebrating the one year anniversary of the release of its $1 million ALS biomarker challenge by launching a new outreach effort at the Society for Neuroscience 2007 Annual Meeting. Prize4Life has already awarded five $15,000 prizes for the best ideas submitted in approaches to ALS biomarker discovery. Anyone can submit a solution for the $1 million ALS biomarker challenge before the November 6th, 2008 deadline.

On success to date, Prize4Life CEO and ALS sufferer Avi Kremer remarked, "Prize4Life has already encouraged and continues to encourage scientists and researchers from around the world, many of whom were not previously seeking a biomarker for ALS, to actively do so. We are making a positive difference in the ALS landscape."

Nearly 900 people have registered and accessed details about the $1 million ALS biomarker prize via the InnoCentive website, an innovation company that is hosting the competition. During the initial idea phase of the challenge, Prize4Life received over 45 proposals and gave out five $15,000 awards to people ranging in backgrounds from a dermatologist to a biotech company focused on pathway-based drug discovery. Participating in the idea contest is not a necessary prerequisite to compete in the $1 million ALS biomarker challenge. Researchers and scientists interested in offering a solution for the $1 million ALS biomarker challenge should register on Prize4Life's website www.prize4life.org.

About Prize4Life

Prize4Life is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that seeks to create breakthroughs in effective ALS/MND (Lou Gehrig's disease) treatments using the leverage of large inducement prizes. Inspired by the success of other inducement prizes (such as DARPA's Grand Challenge, NASA's Centennial Challenges, and the X Prize Foundation), Prize4Life launched a $1 Million ALS/MND Biomarker Challenge to stimulate scientific breakthroughs in ALS/MND. The organization will be launching several other multi-million dollar challenges in the near future.

Contacts
Prize4Life
Melanie Leitner, 617-500-7527
Email: contact@prize4life.org

Winter Wonderland
By Alex McVeigh
December 12, 2007

Open House
The holiday open house takes place Dec. 21 and 22, at 234 Markwood Drive in Sterling, behind the Regal shopping center, from 1-8 p.m. There is no charge to enter, but donations to the ALS Association will be accepted.


Photos by Alex McVeigh/The Connection
Nakisha Carter, Monique Bouchard and Alyssa Reinecke are the project leaders for the open house.


An ornament tree laden with Rhoda Matts’ handmade ornaments.


Just one of many rooms bursting with Christmas decorations of all kinds.





For the second year in a row, marketing students from Potomac Falls High School will be doing their part to help raise money for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, better known as ALS. Kathy Chrisman’s marketing students are working to promote a holiday open house in Sterling, in order to raise money.
ALS is a degenerative neurological disease that interferes with the brain’s ability to control muscle movement. Chrisman recently lost her mother to ALS. "This event is to raise both money and awareness, because it is such a devastating disease," she said.

THE HOUSE features more than 70 Christmas trees, hundreds of handmade ornaments and many other Christmas decorations.
In addition to promoting the event, the students will be present at the house giving tours of the various rooms. They will be handing out shirts, candles, ornaments and baseball cards featuring baseball Hall of Famer Lou Gehrig, a famous sufferer of ALS.
The event has been in the works since the beginning of the school year. This has provided the students the chance to see how the marketing strategies they have learned apply to the real world.
Nakisha Carter, one of the students heading the project, says that everyone should experience the house. "The house is absolutely amazing," she says. "I have never seen anything like it."
The house belongs to Rhoda Matts, who has been making Christmas decorations in her spare time since the 1960s. Throughout the years, her collection has grown to fill a storage unit, which she now keeps her decorations in most of the year.
Each tree has its own theme. One is dedicated to her favorite television show, Star Trek. Each of her children has a tree decorated with ornaments dedicated to their interests.
The basement features a Christmas village made entirely out of recycled products. Candles make up the pillars of buildings. Straws make up a tile roof. There are several dollhouses, also handmade.

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