[Comp-neuro] Interesting challenge for Neuro comp readers

Dear Comp Neuro,

My name is Neta Zach and I am a scientific director at Prize4Life. Prize4Life is a non-profit foundation that was founded in 2006 to promote research breakthroughs in the fatal neurodegenerative disease ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis or Lou Gehrig's Disease).  We are working on a Big Data project that I thought might interest your followers.

On Friday we launched  a prize competition around a unique database of clinical trials data we have been building over the past two years. The full database will house the largest open access clinical trial dataset ever built and will include over 7000 records of ALS patients from past clinical trials, spanning more than a year of data. In ALS, as you may know, unfortunately most patients die very quickly (2-5 years from the time of diagnosis), but some patients, like Stephen Hawking, survive much longer. In the challenge, linked to the database and launching on July 11st, we ask participants to use the data we have collected to predict the future progression of disease for individual patients.  We are collaborating with IBM's DREAM (Dialogue for Reverse Engineering Assessments and Methods), with clinicians at Mass General, and with the Department of Biostatistics at Mass General  and are sponsored by  Nature, The Economist and Popular science.

The Challenge is available here https://www.innocentive.com/ar/challenge/9933047

 I hope that this combination of access to exciting new data, a prize challenge, and the potential for a breakthrough in a fatal neurodegenerative disease, might be of interest to your audience and that you might be willing to notify them about this opportunity.  I am attaching a short note, that is also list here below. I will be happy to discuss the details of it further with you if you have any questions.

 

Thanks!

Neta Zach, PhD, MPA

Scientific Director

Prize4Life

Read more about us at prize4Life.org and http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/08/health/08als.html.

Interested in using your skills for a good cause? How about predicting the future of ALS patients?

 

Prize4Life is proud to announce the launch of a computational challenge to predict the future progression of disease in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig's disease. The DREAM-Phil Bowen ALS Prediction Prize4Life (or ALS Prediction Prize) is being run by Prize4Life in collaboration with The DREAM Project and carries a $25,000 prize for the winning prediction.

 

The new Prize4Life Challenge is based on the PRO-ACT database, which upon completion will contain clinical data for more than 7,500 ALS patients from completed clinical trials. The entire PRO-ACT database will be available for research purposes by year's end and the ALS Prediction Prize will use a subset of this data. Ultimately, it is expected that the solution resulting from this Challenge will improve disease prediction and lead to more accurate methods of forecasting progression earlier on in the course of the disease.

 

The ALS Prediction Prize challenge will be run on the InnoCentive prize platform (https://www.innocentive.com/ar/challenge/9933047). Use your computational expertise to win a Prize4Life, register now.

 

If you are interested in receiving more information as the challenge launches, please send us your name and e-mail at: Prediction@Prize4Life.org. To read more about the prize criteria, click here.