Hello all - as you are all aware I am raising money for cystic fibrosis research, and if you feel inclined to contribute, I'd appreciate every bit. I do want to share a little bit about why I decided to actually do this thing though so you all have a little more context: Cystic fibrosis is what's known as an orphans disease. Basically what that means is, because so few people have it (~40k in the US today), it doesn't get any attention from pharma (not profitable) or government subsidies (not a big enough voting block). Because of this, the cystic fibrosis foundation is essentially on their own raising money to fund research for treatments and eventually a cure. Through the foundation's efforts, the life expectancy of someone with cf has gone from about 18 in 1980 to about 65 today, and have gotten several drugs focused on treatment into mass production. In order to get a drug there, the foundation needs to advance the research to FDA stage 3, as that's generally when big pharma sees enough potential to start investing in the drug themselves. The foundation's next goal is to eradicate the disease through genetic modification. Now you might be wondering: How are they going to do that? Well one of the most important things to me before accepting the nomination was ensuring there was no embryonic stem cell research being utilized. Thankfully, the foundation has a longstanding commitment to ethical research and only uses lung tissues from lab cultures, and stem cell models for their development. That was the first big selling point for me. The second big selling point was the fact that CFF is an extremely efficiently run organization with only 8% administrative overhead. That means 92¢ of every dollar raised goes directly to research. I don't know how familiar you all are with nonprofits but that ratio is off the charts good. (For reference most nonprofits have between 20%-35% overhead) If you have questions or want to know more, I'd be happy to talk about CF, my fundraising plans, the 50 finest program, or any other questions you may have. Otherwise, if you feel compelled to support the cause, please use the link below. Feel free to share around to other friends/coworkers if you feel so compelled, every dollar counts!