The Johnnie Walkers Are Rallying for the Virtual MS Walk on May 17th

I’m guessing it’s no surprise to any of you that I have to cancel the walk part of this year’s MS Walk scheduled for May 17^TH. It’s my favorite weekend of the year but we’re living through some social distancing unprecedented times.

However, our dedication to discovering the cause and cure for MS is not on hold and we continue to help fuel the momentum of the  collaborative work of Northwestern’s  Drs. Steve Miller & Brian Popko.

 So, please donate to this year’s “Walk”. Your support means just as much as it always has.  There are three options to donate:

• ·        Contribute online HERE. We are funding The Miller Multiple Sclerosis Auto-Immune Disease Research Protocol.
• ·        You can send a check to me at the address listed to the right. Please make the check out to The Northwestern Feinberg School Of Medicine.
• ·        If you use your brokerage firm or a donor advised fund, please note that your gift is for the Bob Gregory MS Walk and should be mailed directly to:
  MaryPat Mauro, Director, Major Gifts, Northwestern University
  Development & Alumni Relations, 420 East Superior Street, Rubloff 9th Fl.,
  Chicago, IL 60611

Are our donations making a difference? In the past year:

Dr. Popko relocated from University of Chicago to Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University which will make their collaboration much easier now that both are at the same institution.

• ·        Cour Pharmaceuticals used Drs. Miller & Popko’s approach to complete a highly effective phase 2 clinical trial in Celiac Disease (another autoimmune disease) and are currently planning clinical trials in MS patients using the same.
• ·        Thanks to the data derived by research made possible through our fundraising, they also received two NIH grants examining therapies using tolerance in combination with myelin repair agents.
• ·        They co-authored a paper on an offshoot of a specific drug, guanabenz, that was identified by The Myelin Repair Foundation that we funded in years past.
• ·        Dr. Miller published a paper in collaboration with Clene Pharmaceuticals describing the use of gold nanocrystals to induce remyelination
• ·        Dr. Miller and Popko are currently preparing a manuscript describing the myelin repair inducing properties of digoxin, a repurposed drug which already has FDA approval for use in heart patients

       We are making a difference!

The 2019 Johnnie Walkers Are Rolling Again on Sunday, May 19th

Every year a group of family and friends gather to walk 4 miles, enjoy each others company and a backyard barbecue and raise a little money. A big part of our team who can't make the actual physical walk, donate generously by mailing a check or contributing online through the links on this page. Every year we have been able to send a check of greater than $30,000 to our beneficiaries. We are once again funding the work of Dr. Steve Miller at Northwestern and Dr. Brian Popko at the University of Chicago in their quest to use nanotechnology in pursuit of immunological tolerance, coupled with myelin repair agents. This is the cutting-edge of MS Research. The science is fascinating. Please see below and link to Dr. Miller's WGN interview HERE.

What else is fascinating is the wonderful people who make up the Johnnie Walkers. From unconditionally supporting family, great neighbors, bonded college friends, various loyal work-related friends, dedicated church friends, Chicago friends where we went from Friday night cocktails to weddings to newborns to teenagers to designated drivers in the suburbs Then there are characters like Mike Lazarus who comes in every year for less than 24 hours, with a fistful of checks from the Stamford, CT medical community, whose connection with me is a as a friend of a friend who spent a weekend in the early 80’s  in Chicago and tried to see how much Mexican food we could eat and how many Cub’s games we could go to with the least amount of sleep. There are renewed Emerson, NJ high school friends. There is a little history there where I knew their grandparents, their parents, brothers and sisters and now meeting their adult kids.. They now come in a couple days early to explore Chicago.  And every year there are cherished new friends making new memories and rapidly becoming old friends. Here are some pictures from last year.

The Johnnie Walkers have come a long way since we first started participating all those years ago with Ron & Judy Anderson, Darby Anderson, Dee Schorr, Pat &  I in the freezing rain and raised a few hundred dollars.

I have a few more battle scars since however I’m still as optimistic as ever that me and a million others in the US will get back on our feet.

It’s my favorite weekend of the year!

 If you can’t make the trip, join our team by donating online through Northwestern Univ.

Or by writing a check:

Northwestern University

c/o Bob Gregory

10 Londonderry Lane

Lincolnshire, IL 60069

It was cold. It was raining. We had a blast!

As soon as we took this picture, the skies opened up and sheets of rain came down.
All 45 walkers ran into the house along with 5 Golden Retrievers & a Beagle.
Next thing we knew the food came out, bottles of libations were uncorked and the noise level of laughter climbed.
First time in the history of doing The Walk that we had no walk.
Didn't faze many as the celebration lasted well into the late afternoon and we raised more money than last year.
So grateful to the people that were here and for all whom generously donated to exceed our goal.
Save the date for next year: Sunday, May 

19th, 2019. 

It’s time to rally The Johnnie Walkers for our annual Walk on Sunday, May 20th to raise funds and awareness for multiple sclerosis research.

 Our team is working on the next breakthrough as we are continuing to raise funds for The NU/UC Tolerance Initiative. Drs. Steve Miller of Northwestern Medical School and Brian Popko of The University of Chicago are collaborating on a very promising line of research to induce tolerance of the immune system using nanotechnology to prevent “friendly fire” on healthy cells. They attach myelin proteins to biodegradable nanoparticles (myelin is the coating on nerves that is destroyed by a confused immune system in MS). 

Once this nanomedicine is injected into the blood and goes through the spleen and liver, the immune system is re-taught that healthy myelin is not an invading outside threat and should be left alone and the autoimmune cells becomes “tolerized”. Drs. Miller and Popko are also combining the tolerance protocol with co-administration of drugs that stimulate myelin repair and have found that combined treatment with both strategies leads to a remarkable ability to reverse symptoms of MS in a mouse model of the disease. Promising agents which are being tested for their ability to promote myelin repair include the FDA approved drugs digoxin (used in heart therapy ) and miconazole (an anti-fungal drug) as well as a new approach being tested in collaboration with Clene Nanomedicine which uses the administration of gold nanocrystals.  The money we raised last year allowed our researchers to complete crucial work so they could be compete for more grant money from The National  Institutes of  Health – a new NIH grant was awarded jointly to them in July 2017.

This research has the potential to revolutionize autoimmune and allergic disease treatment since you can substitute the myelin proteins for other proteins depending on the disease being targeted. Therefore you can tolerize the immune system in response to all autoimmune diseases including type 1 diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, Celiac disease and lupus. Additionally, you can control severe allergies, including to peanut and cat dander and even eliminate organ transplant rejections. So, our great philanthropic endeavors will benefit many people we know and love that fit into these expanded categories. Dr. Miller’s company, Cour Pharmaceutical Development Company in collaboration with Takeda Pharmaceuticals began an FDA-approved phase 1 clinical trial in celiac patients who are being treated with nanoparticles containing gliadin (the major protein component of gluten) to re-establish tolerance and hopefully stop this widespread disease.

Join us and be part of our team; walk and donate

If you can’t make the trip join our group by donating online through Northwestern Univ..

Or by writing a check:

Northwestern University

Memo: CATalyzer project

c/o Bob Gregory

10 Londonderry Lane

Lincolnshire, IL 60069

The Sunday Walk has morphed into a fun weekend. Our out of town team members come in early. These include our perennial All-Star, Mike Lazarus, from Connecticut, a number of my classmates from the class of 1974 Emerson NJ high schhigh schoolhigh school, my sister Cathy and brother-in-law Tim from Charlotte and my daughter, Christine, parachuting in from Bogotá.

Success!!

Every year the dynamic cast of characters that makes up the Johnnie Walker Team come through.
The walk on Sunday, May 21st was the culmination of a fun 5 day weekend. And this was all supported by team members you don't see in the picture that generously donated to get to our goal, wrote notes of support and called, texted, and Facebooked to add to the camaraderie.
I am so very grateful. And so very much empowered to support cutting research to get me, 400,000 with MS and millions with autoimmune diseases back on our feet. Scientists like Drs. Steve Miller and Brian Popko are dedicated to ensuring their research translates into practical physical change in real people.

Save the date: Sunday, May 20, 2018

.

Join us on Sunday, May 21st for Our Annual Walk

We are continuing to raise funds for The NU/UC Tolerance Initiative. Drs. Steve Miller of Northwestern Medical School and Brian Popko of The University of Chicago are collaborating on a very promising line of research to induce tolerance of the immune system using nanotechnology to prevent “friendly fire” on healthy cells. They attach myelin proteins to biodegradable nanoparticles (myelin is the coating on nerves that is destroyed by a confused immune system in MS).   Once this nano-cluster is injected into the body and goes through the spleen and liver, the immune system is re-taught that healthy myelin is not an invading outside threat and should be left alone and becomes “tolerized”.

Drs. Miller and Popko are also combining the tolerance protocol with drugs that stimulate myelin repair and have found that combined treatment with both strategies leads to a remarkable ability to reverse symptoms of MS. The money we raised last year allowed them to finish up some needed work so they could be awarded more grant money from The National Institutes of Health.

This tolerance initiative will enhance the environment allowing for re-myelination naturally or with the intervention of the many myelin repair agents that are entering into human clinical trials. When people describe this research they use words like game changer, the Holy Grail and accelerating towards a cure. This research has the potential to revolutionize disease management since you can substitute the myelin proteins for other proteins. Therefore you can tolerize the immune system in response to all autoimmune diseases including type 1 diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, Celiac’s disease and lupus. Additionally, you can control severe allergies, including to peanut and cat dander and even eliminate organ transplant rejections. So, our great philanthropic endeavors will benefit many people we know and love that fit into these expanded categories. As an offshoot to their research, human clinical trials on Celiac’s disease start in a couple months.

To learn more about the Tolerance Initiative, click here to watch a video produced by WGN News featuring Dr. Stephen Miller.

Join us and be part of our team; walk and donate on Sunday, May 21^nd, 2017  in Lincolnshire.  At 10:30 am we will start a 4 mile neighborhood walk, starting and finishing at our house. Then spend the afternoon of camaraderie and a backyard picnic with us. Bring your friends.

If you can’t make the trip join our group by donating online through Northwestern University 

or by writing a check:

Northwestern Univ.

Memo: CATalyzer project, GAKG2

c/o Bob Gregory

10 Londonderry Lane

Lincolnshire, IL 60069

It's Tax Deductible!

Another Great Event!

Last Sunday’s Walk was the culmination of a great weekend of friendship, overwhelming support, talking a little science and raising a lot of cash (with more coming in daily) to benefit collaborative MS research and specifically The NU/UC Tolerance Initiative.

We are so appreciative of the Walkers, who came out to put in some sweat equity as well as bringing monetary contributions. And thanks to those of you who joined our team with financial donations.

It’s not too late to contribute. We will keep the online link for donations open until at least July 4th.

Save the date for next year’s Walk: the weekend of May 21, 2017.