New breakthroughs in ALS research credited to Ice Bucket Challenge

Just a little over a year ago I took the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge at one of the semi-finals of the Big Joe Jersey Talent Show (quick shameless plug: the finals are tonight, Sunday night at 7pm in Pt. Pleasant Beach...)

Anyway as you know, I wasn't the only one. Facebook feeds were flooded with videos of people pouring ice cold water over their heads all in the name of raising money for medical research.

The campaign was one of the first of its kind and a huge success. To date, over $220 million in donations have been raised for ALS or Lou Gehrig's disease research.

Now one year later, scientists at Johns Hopkins are claiming a new breakthrough in ALS research and in part crediting the success to the massive influx of donations.

The breakthrough has to do with finally understanding a protein called TDP-43. Researchers discovered this protein about a decade ago in ALS patients, but it wasn't understood until now if the protein was a cause or a result of the disease.

The funds provided by the Ice Bucket Challenge allowed researchers to move forward with "high risk/high reward" studies which are hard to get approval for with less funds coming in. It also means that clinical trials moving forward from this new breakthrough are already funded and can begin immediately.

It's one step closer to having a cure for the 15,000 Americans living with ALS, but it also gives credibility to the power we have when we all work together. I'm proud to have been a part of that, and I look forward to the next viral campaign that comes sweeping through my social media. But hey... can the next one be something a little less cold... Say, maybe a "Margarita Challenge?"