Our model

Physicians and researchers in the clinic collect samples from consenting patients during acute MS exacerbations and from those same patients in remission. These paired samples are shared with our world-class scientific collaborators.

These scientists have access to the latest tools and technologies to assess the human body at its molecular level and are blinded to patient status. Differences they identify between active and remitted disease immediately emerge as potential biomarkers of disease status, a window into the mechanism of disease modulation, or a target for improved therapies and personalized treatments.

Our reasoning

This novel paradigm accounts for the unique vicissitudes of Multiple Sclerosis which have prevented us from discovering its cause and cure. Multiple Sclerosis is unique to humans and most often studied in non-human models; with Project BIG, the tissue to be studied will be from the women and men who have MS.

The mechanisms that give rise to MS attacks are unpredictable and can be missed with random or predetermined collection times; in our model, we have the ability to assess disease status at the clinical level and obtain samples precisely during critical moments. MS is a heterogeneous disease, so we pair samples from patients who serve as their own control. This eliminates confounding variables with such pure stringency that an identified difference is immediately and profoundly significant.