CASA-MS Progressive Multiple Sclerosis Study

$225,000
81%
Raised toward our $275,000 Goal
3 Donors
191
days left
Project ends on June 30, at 01:47 PM EDT
Project Owners

CASA-MS Progressive MS study

If you know someone with multiple sclerosis, you probably want to know why MS progresses so quickly and severely for 10-15% of people with MS that they need 24-hour care.

We believe that studying severely progressive MS will provide important clues to benefit everyone with MS.  To find answers, we conducted the first CASA-MS Study.


WHY hasn't research involving people with severely advanced symptoms been done before? The short sanswer: logistics and costs.  Most people at this stage of MS are home-bound or reside in nursing homes.  Even if enough subjects could be located, there would be extremely high additional testing costs. That's why pursuing this avenue of research has been considered impossible. 


HOW have we been able to overcome these obstacles? Our Advisory Council and donors all over the world is the answer to that question. A few years ago BNAC's Advisory Council connected us with The Boston Home, a skilled-nursing facility in Dorchester, Massachusetts that specializes in residential care for people with MS needing 24-hour care.  Over 100 donors contributed $500,000 as part of the the 1st CASA-MS fundraising campaign. Thanks to donations from The Jacquemin Family Foundation, the Advisory Council, and a $100,000 challenge grant from the Annette Funicello Fund, over $500,000 was raised from donations large and small. 


FINDINGS of the 1st CASA-MS Study

  • Until now, MS research has focused on studying lesions in the white matter of the brain. CASA-MS showed that a better way to understand MS progression was to look at changes in the volume of the brain's grey matter  
  • We identified and developed new and more precise measurement tools to assess the brain's grey matter 

Click here for University at Buffalo Press Release

To learn more, go to BNAC's website CASA-MS page


CASA-MS PHASE 2 GOALS  We will build on the results of the first study to answer important questions that have emerged from the scientific community. We hope these answers will pave the way to additional funding for clinical trials to help establish Severe Multiple Sclerosis as a distinct MS classification.  This new line of grey matter research could lead to the discovery of new ways to slow or even reverse disease progression.

We have raised over $225,000 (82%) in gifts and pledges towards the $275,000 goal. 


WHY your support now matters so much

Your gift or pledge TODAY will make the critical difference in our ability to respond to upcoming major grant opportunties allowing an even deeper understanding of how grey matter decline impacts MS progression. Our discoveries could lead to the development of new ways to stop and possibly reverse MS progression.

Please click the orange GIVE NOW box at the upper right to give electronically and for instructions about how to give by check and make a pledge.


Click here with questions  


Larry Montani, Campaign Chair


Special Thanks to 


The Jacquemin Family Foundation 

Annette Funicello Research Fund for Neurological Diseases

Anonymous Donors




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