Thanks to your support and generous donations we have committed to fund $66,142 over 2 years to the Moseman Lab at Duke University. This money will go directly towards research needed to develop an antigen-based diagnostic tool for PAM. The goal is to provide a rapid test that can provide results in less than 15 minutes leading to the early diagnosis of naegierla fowleri! And the coolest part of it all....it will be called “Aven’s Assay!”

This is ground breaking research. While a spinal tap will still have to be completed to have CSF to test our hope is that in the not so distant future a sample can be used to detect extracellular amoeba “debris” in the fluid within minutes. This is different than current diagnostic tools that are available. Think Covid antigen test versus a PCR test. Early diagnosis = early treatment = lives saved. This new process will hopefully enable physicians to have a test at their finger tips in hospitals around the country and will take out the process of transporting samples to labs and keeping the CSF at specific temperatures while taking out the element of time that is so important in dealing with PAM infections. As with any research, this will take time and this is a multi year collaboration. We are so thankful for new advancements in early diagnosis made since last year when we lost Aven including a new PCR that was released last week. We hope this research will aid to the work already being done. Phase one will include developing and characterizing naegleria fowleri specific antibodies and the first half of our commitment of $33,000 has been sent over for work to begin!

We can not bring Aven back but we are committed to making a difference going forward and we are so excited about what is to come from this grant. We are so thrilled to partner with two amazing researchers who are here in our home state. Ashley and Annie Moseman are working on the forefront of amoeba research and we are honored to partner with them. As with any research nothing happens over night and this will take time but it is our hope and dream that one day to have “Aven’s Assay” in every hospital across the nation. Aven’s legacy of being a doctor and helping save other babies will live on just not how we ever imagined it.

Thank you for your generous donations and unwavering support and for believing in us. We know that there are so many amazing organizations out there and we value your support more than you will ever know. Thank you for trusting us to put money back into research and education that will have a direct impact. A lot has happened over the last year and while our pain is still unbearable it gives us hope to know that we are helping fund research to hopefully help save others. It is our hope that within John and Genes lifetime they will get to see a world with zero deaths caused from the amoeba naegleria fowleri