April 24 Jim Himelic Memorial Golf Classic Raises Funds for ALS Research
April 09, 2009
MEDICAL WRITERS/ASSIGNMENT EDITORS NOTE: Media are welcome to cover this event, and participants will be available for interviews. For more information, contact Ana Himelic, (520) 275-8187, or e-mail AHimelic@hotmail.com. To arrange interviews with UA ALS researchers and ALS patients and/or family members, please contact Jean Spinelli, AHSC Public Affairs, (520) 626-7301.
“Fans, for the past two weeks you have been reading about the bad break I got. Yet today I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of this earth... I may have had a tough break, but I have an awful lot to live for,” said baseball legend Lou Gehrig on July 4, 1939, as he bid farewell to his fans in Yankee stadium.
Nearly 70 years since he spoke those famous words, researchers are continuing to try to understand the disorder that claimed his life in 1941, just 17 days shy of his 38th birthday: amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as “Lou Gehrig’s disease.”
Every day an average of 15 people are newly diagnosed with ALS -- more than 5,000 people per year -- and ALS currently affects as many as 35,000 Americans, according to the Muscular Dystrophy Association. Unfortunately, the average life expectancy following diagnosis typically is two to five years.
A cure for ALS requires a great deal of support from the private sector to help fund ongoing and new ALS research. Since it began in 2001, Tucson’s annual Jim Himelic Memorial Golf Classic, Dinner, Auctions and Dancing has raised $573,000 to benefit ALS research at The University of Arizona College of Medicine in Tucson.
This year’s event will be held Friday, April 24, at the Omni National Golf Resort & Spa, 2727 W. Club Drive, Tucson.
The day’s schedule includes:
- 11 a.m. -- Registration begins.
- 12:30 p.m. -- Shotgun start.
- 6-7:30 p.m. -- Silent auction, with music by Ed Delucia’s Trio.
- 7:30-11 p.m. -- Dinner, live auction and dancing to music by George Howard and the Roadhouse Hounds. Master of Ceremonies: Elliot Glicksman. Special appearance by Wilber and Wilma Wildcat.
Organizers once again are asking the Southern Arizona community to participate in this fun-filled daylong event to support vital scientific research with the goal of improving our understanding of ALS and developing effective treatments that one day will lead to a cure.
The event is named in honor of Jim Himelic, a friend of the Tucson community and much-respected juvenile court judge who died from ALS in February 2000. The Jim Himelic Foundation (JHF) was created by his family, friends and colleagues in 2000 to fund local ALS research. The foundation’s goal is to raise $1 million in “seed money” -- money that will allow UA researchers to fund the preliminary research necessary for obtaining larger government and private grants to further their studies of ALS.
ALS is a progressive, fatal neurodegenerative disease affecting adults from all walks of life. The disease, which occurs randomly in the population, causes a loss of muscle function by affecting the nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord utilized for movement, eventually leading to death. Although significant advances have occurred in the medical community’s understanding of the processes underlying the loss of these motor neurons, no effective treatment exists at this time.
JHF Supports UA ALS Research
JHF supports a variety of investigations at the Jim Himelic Neuromuscular Research Laboratory at the UA College of Medicine Department of Neurology, where researchers are developing novel techniques to activate cells called progenitors -- found in the brain and spinal cord of adults -- to form new nerve cells. During human development from the embryonic (first eight weeks) through the fetal (eight weeks to birth) periods, these progenitors produce almost all of the nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord. Once this task is complete, progenitors generate other brain cells but do not make new nerve cells.
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The goal of UA researchers is it to “re-train” these progenitors -- which remain present in the adult brain and spinal cord -- to produce new nerve cells. In this manner, researchers hope to replace the nerve cells that have died in ALS patients with new functional nerve cells, potentially slowing or possibly even reversing the course of the disease. If successful, this approach also may be used to replace other types of nerve cells that are lost in other neurologic diseases such as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s.
All proceeds from the Himelic golf classic, dinner and auctions directly benefit UA ALS research. Funds raised have allowed the UA to hire cellular biologist Jonathan Flax, MD, research assistant professor of molecular and cellular biology in the UA Department of Neurology. Dr. Flax is one of 10 individuals in the country conducting progenitor cell research for the treatment of ALS.
Funds also have allowed Daniela C. Zarnescu, PhD, UA assistant professor of molecular and cellular biology and neurobiology, to join the Jim Himelic Neuromuscular Research Laboratory. Dr. Zarnescu is studying the fruitfly (Drosophila) as a model for human neurological and neurodegenerative disorders because of the similarities between the Drosophila and human disease genes. A number of genes have been linked to cases of ALS that are inherited (about 10 percent); researchers believe the majority of ALS cases also likely are due to mutations in several genes. “A mutation in a gene called TDP-43 has emerged as a common denominator for the majority of ALS cases known to date,” says Dr. Zarnescu. “We plan to establish a Drosophila model for ALS based on both loss of function and over-expression of TDP-43 in the nervous system.” Dr. Zarnescu believes her research will uncover therapeutic agents that will target the abnormal TDP-43 gene, which is a hallmark of other human neurodegenerative disorders. “We may discover approaches that are applicable to diseases other than ALS,” she says.
JHF also is working with ALS neurologist Katalin Scherer, MD, UA assistant professor of neurology, to apply ALS research in a clinical setting. JHF hopes to fund local and national multi-center clinical trials in the near future, based on the ALS patient base of Southern Arizona, with the help of the new ALS clinic established and directed by Dr. Scherer. Named the MDA/ALS Center at UPH Hospital, the clinic opened in August 2008 at University Physicians Hospital and Clinics, 2800 E. Ajo Way, Tucson. The center is one of only 37 facilities at major medical institutions in the country designated by the Muscular Dystrophy Association as MDA/ALS Centers because of the amount of ALS research taking place there and the vast experience of the medical staff in dealing with this disorder. For more information about the MDA/ALS Center at UPH Hospital, call (520) 874-2747.
In May 2004, the UA Department of Neurology’s stem cell laboratory officially was named “The Jim Himelic Neuromuscular Research Laboratory.” The UA’s neuromuscular research program is part of the Western ALS Study Group, a consortium of dedicated ALS investigators from around the nation, and the Neurogenomics Division of the Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen) in Phoenix, a leader in the field of genomic discovery.
How You Can Help
The public’s help continues to be needed. JHF believes that ALS can be cured through focused, dedicated neurological research within the next quarter century. Supporting this local effort to eradicate ALS can make an immediate difference.
Fees for the 2009 Jim Himelic Memorial Golf Classic, Dinner, Auctions and Dancing are as follows:
- Golf/dinner/auction/dancing: $175 per person/$700 per foursome (golf and dinner fees do not qualify as a tax-deductible donation). Format will be four-person scramble (form your own foursome or we will pair you). Limited to 144 players.
- Dinner/auction/dancing only: $60 per person (dinner fees do not qualify as a tax-deductible donation)
- Sponsorships:
Premier: $1,000 ($180 qualifies as tax-deductible donation)
Tee sign: $300 (fully tax-deductible) Driving range: $400 (fully tax-deductible)
Practice green: $400 (fully tax-deductible)
Mulligan: $400 (fully tax-deductible)
To register, or for more information about the Jim Himelic Memorial Golf Classic and ALS research at the UA, contact Ana Himelic, (520) 275-8187, e-mail: AHimelic@hotmail.com, or visit the Web site, http://www.jimhimelicfoundation.org.