Jackson Laboratory ALS research to benefit from 2009 Bangor Walk

Date: August 31, 2009
| Share

Bangor, Maine -- At least 200 ALS patients and their families, friends and supporters braved the rain in Bangor's Hayford Park on the morning of Saturday, August 29, for the second annual Walk to Defeat ALS. The fundraising event was sponsored by the ALS Association.

Jackson Laboratory Associate Professor Greg Cox, Ph.D. (left), keynote speaker of the event and an ALS Association grantee, came with members of his laboratory and family. He said, “Events such as the Walk to Defeat ALS help to raise awareness about the need for continued clinical and basic research on ALS. My laboratory is taking advantage of the power of mouse genetics to identify factors that can alter the onset or progression of ALS. We hope to use this knowledge to identify new targets for therapeutic development.”

Also attending the event were Nancy Venner, director of community services for the ALS Association, and two patient services coordinators from the association's Northern New England Chapter, Christine Richards of New Hampshire and Nell Davies of Maine.

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS or Lou Gehrig's disease) is a progressive, fatal neuromuscular disease that robs the body of its ability to walk, speak, swallow and breathe. The life expectancy of an ALS patient averages two to five years from the time of diagnosis. Every 90 minutes someone in this country is diagnosed with ALS, and every 90 minutes another person will lose the battle against this disease.

According to the event’s planning committee chair, Bangor native Lisa Kingsbury, the 2008 inaugural edition raised more than $30,000, a goal the committee hopes to match this year despite the bad weather on Walk day. Kingsbury and her husband, Jim, who has ALS, were chosen this year as ALS Association advocates from the state of Maine.

Other members of the committee included Hampden residents Janice Von Brook and her daughter Carol Lamb, both executive administrative assistants at The Jackson Laboratory and members of the "Fighting for Farmer George" team. The team is named for Von Brook's husband, George Miller, an ALS patient who raises champion Charolais cattle on his family farm in Hampden.

The Jackson Laboratory is a nonprofit biomedical research institution based in Bar Harbor, Maine. Its mission is to discover the genetic basis for preventing, treating and curing human diseases, and to enable research and education for the global biomedical community.

# # #


 

Download a photograph of Associate Professor Greg Cox, Ph.D. (300 dpi jpeg, 3Mb)

Contact(s): Joyce Peterson, 207-288-6058

For information on automatic email delivery of news releases (journalists only), please send an email request for details to news@jax.org. Please address other inquiries to pubinfo@jax.org.

Media Relations, Communications Office
The Jackson Laboratory
600 Main Street
Bar Harbor, Maine 04609-1500
Phone: 207-288-6058 (journalists only)
Main Jackson Laboratory phone: 207-288-6000
Fax: 207-288-6076
Email: news@jax.org