Welcome to the Sigma Beta Prospective National Charities page. Here you will find links and information on potential National Charity Projects! All Sigma Betas are encouraged to learn more about prospective projects before voting at Sigma Beta's annual Convention. Click on the links to the organizations' web sites for an in-depth look. If you have questions about the proposed charity projects, feel free to contact the chapter who's sponsoring it or the organizations' liaisons.
 

For Your Consideration......

Gamma Tau Chapter seeks support for Parkinson's Disease Research at the Lerner Research Institute at the Cleveland Clinic.  Please direct your questions to Mary Pat Fenner at 937-258-2374 or mpat1938@msn.com.

Proposal Details:

Dr. Albert's research focuses on the understanding structure-function relationships within the central nervous system and the upper body. Currently he is working on two projects geared towards helping people living with Parkinson's disease (PD) and they include:

1) Diagnostic - Dr. Alberts is currently working to develop a better diagnostic tool for PD. Currently diagnostic measures are not uniform and are subjective at best - it can take years for a patient to be decisively diagnosed with PD. With help from the Michael J. Fox Foundation, Dr. Alberts hopes to develop a tool that can be used online - in an individual's home or in their doctor's office. By developing a standardized diagnostic tool, available world wide, people can receive more accurate and earlier diagnosis of their disease. Information that patients can then use when developing their treatment plans going forward.

2) Treatment - Dr. Alberts has conducted preliminary research which indicates that "forced exercise" leads to reduced PD symptoms (please see enclosed DVD) - the next question is why and how?

Through previous research that Jay has done we know that this is occurring. Dr. Alberts designed a tandem bicycle that measures and monitors patients' performance, power and pedaling rate. The bicycle forces PD patients to pedal at rates 40% to 60% faster than they can achieve on their own. One encouraging aspect is the improvement in motor function in patients' arms even though they're only using their legs during the exercising. We've seen as much as a 35% improvement in motor function. This suggests that forced exercise is impacting higher brain function and improving central motor function.


Scans ofPD patients' brains show that exercise seems to stimulate the supplementary motor area of the brain, the region that controls general movement and governs 60% of our daily physical activity - the manual tasks that range from buttoning shirts to tying shoe laces to handwriting. Dr. Alberts has been working on the project with Mark Lowe, PhD, Cleveland Clinic's Imaging Institute, and Michael Phillips, MD, Section Head of Imaging Sciences in the Cleveland Clinic Department of Diagnostic Radiology. There's an increase in activation after just one forced exercise session. We've seen improvements remain for four weeks after a patient stopped forced exercising. We believe driving of the central nervous system may be necessary to produce the underlying biochemical changes which need to occur to improve motor function.

The next steps are to understand the mechanisms underlying improved function, what is the minimum dose necessary for improvements to occur, are these effects long-lasting and does forced exercise ofthis kind slow the progression of PD. In other words what is happening in the brain and body ofthe PD patient to causes such a dramatic change in symptoms and can we recreate that affect with pharmaceuticals. The answer to this question will impact patient's living with PD but ALL Neurological Diseases (ie Alzheimers, MS, ALS, epilepsy, Dystonia etc). Understanding what is occurring in the body and mind in key to making this happen.


A $25,000 grant is sought by Dr. Albert to move the exercise study into clinical studies. Funds from the Sigma Beta would be used towards that effort. I have enclosed multiple copies of a summary of Jay's work - please feel free to distribute to your board. I also invite you and board members to come to the Lerner Research Institute and meet with Jay in person and see how forced exercise is making a difference in the lives of those living with PD.
 

Learn More at www.lerner.ccf.org.

 

Christine A. Iacobuzio-Donahue MD, PhD, Associate Professor, Pathology and Oncology seeks support for her research on pancreatic cancer at Johns Hopkins University.

Proposal Details:

For the past five years we have been studying how pancreatic cancers spread to other organs, called metastasis. With the invaluable help of a Sigma Beta Sorority Award to my research, we have made great strides in this area. Our lab has discovered that there is not one but two types of pancreatic cancer. While they appear similar at diagnosis, they differ dramatically in how they continue to grow within the pancreas or their ability to metastasize to other organs. This is a huge step forward as it suggests that one of the reasons for the failure of many clinical trials is that we have been unknowingly comparing these two types of cancer, in essence comparing “apples” to “oranges”. Now that we have discovered how to recognize these two types of pancreatic cancer at the time of diagnosis, the next step will be to a) reanalyze clinical trial data that already exists within these two types of cancer to confirm this finding, b) continue to accumulate information of the molecular features of these two types of pancreatic cancer to better recognize them at diagnosis, and c) begin a small scale clinical trial at Johns Hopkins using treatment regiments that are more appropriate for the type of pancreatic cancer a patient has.
 

A $25,000 grant from Sigma Beta will provide critical support to begin small clinical trials at Johns Hopkins using treatment regimens that are more appropriate for the type of pancreatic cancer a patient has.
 

Learn More at pathology.jhu.edu/pancreas.

 

Epsilon Lambda Chapter seeks your support for Cure Childhood Cancer. Kristin Connor is the liaison. 

Proposal Details:

Founded in 1975, CURE Childhood Cancer’s mission is to conquer Childhood cancer through research, education and support of patients and their families. Since our establishment is a grass-roots organization, CURE has focused our efforts on improving the care, quality of life, and survival rate of children with cancer. Although our efforts on behalf of children with cancer are extensive, our primary activities are focused in three areas: Research, Training and Family Support. Support for research is a critical par of CURE’s mission. We are passionate about growing our support of childhood cancer research because we know it is only through vigorous and unwavering research support that less toxic treatments and ultimately cures will be found for childhood cancer. Less than 2% of federal funding towards cancer is directed toward solving children’s cancer. Major drug companies focus their research initiatives on treatments for adult cancers, not childhood cancers. CURE is committed to help bridge the funding gap left by the dwindling federal funds. CURE focuses much of our research funding on seed grants. By providing the “seed money” CURE fills a direct and urgent need in the scientific community.
 

A $25,000 grant to support our pediatric cancer research initiative. CURE Childhood Cancer asks for the generous support of Sigma Beta to further our mission of conquering childhood cancer through research, education and patient and family support.
 

Learn More at www.curechildhoodcancer.org.

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