Answer ALS Launches ‘The Data is Here’ Campaign to Announce the Release of the World’s Largest Open Sourced ALS Data Portal

NEW ORLEANS, January 8, 2021 (Newswire.com) – Answer ALS, in cooperation with the Stephen Hawking Foundation, launches “The Data is Here” campaign on January 8 and on what would have been the famed Theoretical Physicist’s 79th birthday. The campaign features a video tribute to Stephen Hawking and his tireless efforts to solve complex universal questions, while living with ALS for over 50 years. Although he and science were unable to unravel the mystery of ALS in his lifetime, the campaign boldly states, “At 21, Stephen Hawking was diagnosed with ALS. In ’21, we aim to make a breakthrough in his honor. The data is here.”

To celebrate Professor Hawking’s birthday, Answer ALS is giving the world free access to the most comprehensive ALS research in history through its recently developed and expanded Data Portal. With support and guidance from Microsoft, Answer ALS’ team has been working with developers at EPAM to build an unprecedented Data Portal hosted on Azure. The portal will empower researchers with the critical tools necessary to explore the enormous trove of data collected from over 1000 ALS patient participants and controls. Through the use of AI and machine learning, Answer ALS’ data will serve as the foundation for new clinical trials, identifying ideal trial participants, and to find drug-responsive biomarkers or diagnostics.

“This biological and clinical data creates a foundation for scientists, companies and labs around the world to tackle the challenge of understanding ALS subgroups, real human-relevant pathways and the tools to find individuals’ disease-specific drugs, said Dr. Jeffrey Rothstein, Director, Robert Packard Center for ALS Research at Johns Hopkins University, and the Director of Answer ALS Research. “This game-changing Data Portal will host more data than there are stars in the visible sky,” he continued. “We believe this would have resonated with Professor Hawking, and we are excited to release this today in his honor.”

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