Million Dollar Bike Ride
PHILADELPHIA — Hailing from 28 states and two countries, 100 volunteers and 500 riders in 28 “disease” teams will cycle in the fifth annual Million Dollar Bike Ride, to be held on Sunday, May 20, 2018. The Ride, which supports research and promotes awareness about rare diseases, is organized by the Orphan Disease Center at Penn Medicine and in four years has so far raised over $6.4 million for research.
Orphan diseases represent a collection of disorders that affect less than 200,000 individuals for any single disease type. Despite their rarity in the population, there are more than 7,000 distinct orphan diseases, most of which start in childhood. In all, over 25 million people in the United States suffer from complications associated with orphan diseases; thousands die from them each year. Despite this toll, research in most disease types has lagged far behind other major areas due to a combination of technological and funding limitations.
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WHERE:
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Highline Park (31st and Chestnut Streets)
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WHEN:
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Sunday, May 20, 2018, Ride starts at 7:30am
Prime photo opportunities: Before and at start of the Ride and along the 13, 34, and 72-mile routes.
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WHO:
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Riders and their families, along with Jim Wilson, MD, PhD, director of Penn’s Orphan Disease Center. Interviews are available with Penn Medicine experts and ride participants about theMillion Dollar Bike Ride, living with a rare disease, or research advances in the fight against these illnesses. Most of the teams are family members and friends of individuals with a rare disease.
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WHAT
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The Million Dollar Bike Ride is the only cycling event to start and finish in Philadelphia, at Highline Park (31st and Chestnut Streets) on Penn’s campus. The Ride is not to benefit just one rare disease, but many. Individual cyclists are registering and raising money for their specific orphan/rare disease, and funds raised to support research for a specific rare disease will be awarded with dollar-for-dollar matching funds, up to a maximum of $50,000 per team. The Ride’s teams this year are:
APBD Tour de Friends(Adult Polyglucosan Body Disease)
A-T Children’s Project(Ataxia-telangiectasia)
Bike to End Duchenne
Bike 4 Sight(Retinal Blindness)
Cure Angelman Now(Angelman Syndrome)
Fibrous Dysplasia Team
Fragile X Syndrome Team
LAM Foundation Easy Breathers(Lymphangioleiomyomatosis)
Movin' for Mallory - Cure Cystic Fibrosis!
Penn Scientists for Orphan Disease Research(PSODR)
Pitt Hopkins Pedalers
Raring to Go for CHI(Congenital Hyperinsulinism International)
RASopathies Network Riders
Team Castleman Disease
Team CDLK5 Riding for a Cure
Team CHM(Choroideremia)
Team Cure CMD(Congenital Muscular Dystrophies)
Team #Cure FOP(International Fibrodysplasia Ossificans Progressiva Association)
Team Cure ML4(Mucolipidosis Type IV)
Team FARA(Friedreich’s Ataxia)
Team Gene Spotlight(Rare Disease Research)
Team Josh & the DCO Riders(Dyskeratosis Congenita)
Team LGDA(Lymphangiomatosis & Gorham's Disease Alliance)
Team MPS(Mucopolysaccharidoses)
Team NBIA Disorders(Neurodegeneration with Brain Iron Accumulation)
Team NPC(Niemann Pick Type C)
Team Scott(Maple Syrup Urine Disease)
Team SRS!(Snyder-Robinson Syndrome)
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Penn Medicine is one of the world’s leading academic medical centers, dedicated to the related missions of medical education, biomedical research, excellence in patient care, and community service. The organization consists of the University of Pennsylvania Health System and Penn’s Raymond and Ruth Perelman School of Medicine, founded in 1765 as the nation’s first medical school.
The Perelman School of Medicine is consistently among the nation's top recipients of funding from the National Institutes of Health, with $550 million awarded in the 2022 fiscal year. Home to a proud history of “firsts” in medicine, Penn Medicine teams have pioneered discoveries and innovations that have shaped modern medicine, including recent breakthroughs such as CAR T cell therapy for cancer and the mRNA technology used in COVID-19 vaccines.
The University of Pennsylvania Health System’s patient care facilities stretch from the Susquehanna River in Pennsylvania to the New Jersey shore. These include the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, Penn Presbyterian Medical Center, Chester County Hospital, Lancaster General Health, Penn Medicine Princeton Health, and Pennsylvania Hospital—the nation’s first hospital, founded in 1751. Additional facilities and enterprises include Good Shepherd Penn Partners, Penn Medicine at Home, Lancaster Behavioral Health Hospital, and Princeton House Behavioral Health, among others.
Penn Medicine is an $11.1 billion enterprise powered by more than 49,000 talented faculty and staff.