More CJD Info

Since my post Friday about the fight to find a cure for Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, which has struck Silicon Valley veteran Mike Homer, many groups have written in, offering support.

They include: the CJD Alliance and the CJD Support Network in the United Kingdom; CJD Voice; and CJD Aware!. There are many other such groups, all using the Web to trade the latest information about this tragic illness.

Last week, a coterie of major tech players and friends of Homer’s gathered to try to make some progress beating the rare, neurodegenerative prion disease, which in Homer’s case has occurred sporadically rather than via infection (the well-known variant that occurs in animals is called mad cow disease).

CJD’s incidence is one case in a million annually, and few survive beyond a year after exhibiting symptoms.

Homer is being treated at the University of California at San Francisco, where the hospital is the only place in this country that has a major laboratory doing both research and clinical trials.

For those who want to help Homer’s cause, there are several ways, including via donation to the Homer Family Foundation’s Program for Brain Disease Research (P.O. Box 10195, Palo Alto, Calif. 94303); the Homer Family Fund for Brain Research at the Harris myCFO Foundation (P.O. Box 10196, Palo Alto, Calif. 94303); or the UCSF Foundation, specifically to the “Fight for Mike Fund” or generally for neurodegenerative disease research and treatment.