It turns out those much-mocked Ice Bucket Challenge videos helped do a lot of good. Two summers ago, the challenge, designed to raise money for research into amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also known as Lou Gehrig's disease, took the internet by storm. Supporters ended up raising over $115 million for the A.L.S. Association.
The latest development, announced by the association this week, falls into the research category: It's the discovery of NEK1, which scientists say is among the most common genes that contribute to the disease and is associated with 3 percent of A.L.S. cases. The discovery, published in Nature Genetics, is the result of a global gene-sequencing effort involving 11 countries and 80 researchers, called Project MinE.
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