The U.S. arm of Project MinE has now raised $1,500,395, which is 58 percent of its overall goal of $2,600,000. So far, 577 DNA profiles have been collected out of 1,000 goal.

The ALS Association Commitment

The American ALS Association committed an initial $1 million in partnership with the Greater New York and Georgia Chapters, establishing the U.S. arm of Project MinE. Fundraising is continuing to complete the goal of sequencing 1,000 DNA profiles!

It costs approximately $2,000 to sequence the whole genome of one person. As of August 1, 2016, Project MinE globally has achieved 35 percent of its total goal equaling 7,835 DNA profiles collected out of the planned 22,500.

Progress

Already Project MinE has lead to the discovery of four new ALS genes. This summer, Project MinE researchers published about their discovery of ALS genes NEK1 and C21orf2, that were published in back-to-back articles in Nature Genetics. Two other genes, MOBP and SCFD1, were also identified as new associated risk genes that still require further validation.

Even after these new ALS genes have been found, there are still many more rare variants that affect the risk of ALS and await discovery. The goal of Project MinE is to find all genetic causes of ALS. After each new ALS gene discovery, researchers zoom into this gene to better understand the disease pathways causing ALS and then ultimately understand whether those pathways can be targeted for new ALS therapies.

Project MinE, make it yours!