July 14th marks the fifth anniversary of the ice bucket challenge for ALS, the social media sensation that caused seismic vibrations of goodwill to ripple across much of the world during the summer of 2014.
Five years ago, more than 17 million people took to Facebook and uploaded videos of themselves screaming and shivering with delight as they dumped buckets of ice-filled water on their heads and challenged friends and strangers to do the same while also committing whatever money they could spare to fund ALS research.
The ice bucket challenge raised a whopping $220 million dollars to combat Lou Gehrig’s disease (ALS) and that number continues to grow today.
But it did much more than that. It brought us all closer together as human beings.
Oxford Biodynamics PLC (LON:OBD) was spun out from Oxford University in June 2007 with the aim of translating fundamental scientific advances into a commercialised platform technology and a new generation of biomarkers for cancer and other diseases. OBD has been granted a substantial funding award from Innovate UK to develop and validate diagnostic, prognostic and predictive EpiSwitch™ biomarkers for ALS.