Fight for Mike: Help Mike Homer Fight Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (CJD)

Mike Homer recently passed away from CJD. Your donation will help accelerate research on medication that might prolong the lives of other patients as UCSF continues its work on a cure for CJD.

UCSF is the only place in the US that conducts research, clinical trials, and treatment of CJD. UCSF's Memory and Aging Center (MAC) [1], directed by Dr. Bruce Miller [2], is the clinical program that provides assessment and treatment of neurodegenerative disorders. Dr. Michael Geschwind [3] directs UCSF's CJD clinical team. There are short-term treatments that can benefit patients and your donation will go directly to research on medications that can prolong life and make the quality of life better.

CJD is a rare, rapidly progressive, neurodegenerative disease. It is part of a family of diseases, called transmissible spongiform encephalopathies, that are caused by an agent known as a “prion”, a proteinaceous infectious particle. Prions were named and discovered by Dr. Stanley Prusiner at the University of California, San Francisco, who was awarded the 1997 Nobel Prize for this work. Prion diseases also occur in animals, the most well-known infectious variant being mad cow disease. The incidence of CJD is roughly 1 case per million annually, with onset usually occurring in late middle age. At present, there is no known cure for CJD, and treatment options are extremely limited. Only a small percentage of patients survive past one year of the first symptom.

From the UCSF Foundation [4].