The International Fibrodysplasia Ossificans Progressiva Association (IFOPA), the Seeker for this Wazoku Crowd Challenge, is looking for improved methods to rapidly assess the progression of Fibrodysplasia Ossificans Progressiva (FOP) in patients. The primary outcomes that indicate disorder progression are new bone growth as indicated by measuring new bone lesions and/or increased total body bone volume.
FOP is a rare genetic disorder where affected patients suffer from bone growth in muscles, tendons, ligaments, and other tissues where bone should not grow. A key outcome of progression of the disorder is the growth of new bone caused by FOP, which can be measured by detecting internal lesions signifying the start of new bone formation or increased total body bone volume through scans/imaging.
Currently available methods to measure new lesions and increased bone growth are expensive, require high degrees of training to perform and analyze, and can often be inaccessible for FOP patients with permanent changes in their mobility and body positioning caused by the disorder. Even more importantly, current methods’ sensitivity is such that it requires a minimum of 6 to 12 months to detect a statistically significant change in the number of new lesions or total bone volume, which results in very long clinical trials for potential drugs that slow or stop ectopic bone growth in FOP.
The IFOPA is looking for novel—more efficient, safe, noninvasive, and user-friendly—approaches that should be capable of measuring new bone formation (or lack thereof) in no more than 3-6 months.
This is a Prize Challenge which requires a written proposal to be submitted. Awards will be contingent upon the theoretical evaluation of the proposal by the IFOPA, followed by experimental validation of a few, most promising, proposals. To receive an Award for this Prize Challenge, Solvers are required to transfer non-exclusive rights to the Intellectual Property (IP) in their proposed solution. Solvers will retain all rights to any proposal not Awarded. The IFOPA is also willing to consider partial awards for theoretically evaluated proposals or knowledge of commercially available solutions.
Solvers can win from the award pool of $25,000, with staged awards for solutions that meet all requirements, as solely determined by the IFOPA. In the first stage, $10,000 is reserved for the best solution(s) that meets all solution requirements following theoretical evaluation. Then, the most promising proposals will undergo experimental validation with FOP researchers and a further $15,000 is reserved to award solutions contingent on this experimental validation.
Awards:- $25,000
Deadline:- 21-04-2024
