Harvard Business School students take on ALS
June 15 2006 | ALS News
By Jennifer Heldt Powell
Thursday, June 15, 2006 - Updated: 03:35 AM EST
© Copyright by the Boston Herald and Herald Media.
Avichai “Avi” Kremer has a tendency to get right to the point. He doesn’t have long to live and he doesn’t want to waste a minute of his time.
Kremer wants money to fight the disease that is killing him and thousands of others.
Kremer, 31, has amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, commonly known as ALS or Lou Gehrig’s disease. The degenerative illness is eating away at the nerves to his muscles and robbing him of control over his body, while his mind remains sharp.
Kremer was diagnosed with the ALS just as he started Harvard Business School two years ago.
Rather than drop out, he continued with classes, using what he learned to raise money for his fight - and to create companies designed to battle ALS.
His friend and classmate, Nate Boaz, shared his story because Kremer has difficulty talking, due to the disease.
“There’s something about Avi,” Boaz said. “Even before the diagnosis, he has this sense about him, this sense of urgency to get right to the point and get things done.”
When Kremer first learned that he had the disease, he convinced his classmates to put their required fund-raising efforts toward it. They raised $150,000.
During the first summer after his diagnosis, he returned home to Israel. He was dismayed to learn how disjointed ALS research was, Boaz said. Kremer set about changing that.
First, he talked to researchers, offering them funding if they would study ALS, Boaz said. Then he went out to raise the money he was pledging. Kremer raised more than $2 million and started several research initiatives.
He has launched two companies. One, Prize4Life, is a non-profit that will establish a global contest offering financial incentives for ALS research. The goal is to raise enough to be able to offer a $10 million prize for research, said Boaz, who will be the executive director.
The other, Avi Therapeutics, is a for-profit “incubator” to turn discoveries made at universities into marketable treatments.
“Avi is assertive, but he’s unassuming and he’s not ego driven,” said Harvard Business School professor Jan Hammond. “He is very focused.”
The disease has taken its toll on Kremer, but he copes with it by knowing he’s doing something important, Boaz said.
