Accelerated Cure Project Reaches Half Way Mark in Building MS Repository, World's Largest Open Access Biobank for Multiple Sclerosis Research

Organization has collected 500 blood and tissue samples for MS Research

(Waltham, MA July 16, 2007) The Accelerated Cure Project for MS, a national nonprofit organization, today announced that in they have reached the half way mark in their drive to collect blood samples and data from 1,000 subjects across the country. After reaching the 1,000 subject milestone, the Accelerated Cure Project intends to continue collecting samples from as many as 10,000 subjects for its MS Respository. The repository is projected to become the largest openly accessible, multi-disciplinary collection of bio-samples ever assembled for use in Multiple Sclerosis (MS) research.

This is a major milestone for the Accelerated Cure Project, says Art Mellor, founder and CEO. Limited sample size is one of the most frequently cited reasons for inconclusive results in MS research. The repository lets us provide researchers with immediate access to a far greater number of samples than most scientists could collect themselves.

In addition to helping researchers overcome the obstacle of limited sample size, this repository will provide a common population of samples useful in a wide variety of disciplines, which will enable results from different research perspectives to be easily combined and correlated.

Subjects enrolled in the study will be followed over time to allow new samples to be taken and to record important changes in clinical status. Studying the same sample population over time, and pooling knowledge in a central database, is seen as a major step toward understanding what causes MS, thereby accelerating a cure for the nearly 2 million people worldwide afflicted with this disease.