All Things Digital

The full video from the Fight for Mike event, held a week ago in Palo Alto, Calif., for Mike Homer, is now up on YouTube and is embedded below.

Friends and colleagues of the well-known tech veteran came together to learn about his severe illness–he was recently diagnosed with Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.

The hour-long event included speeches by close Homer friends and tech luminaries, Bill Campbell and Ron Conway, information about CJD from doctors at the University of California at San Francisco, where Homer is being treated, and questions from the audience of hundreds.

A rare, neurodegenerative prion disease, which in Homer’s case has occurred sporadically rather than via infection (the well-known variant that occurs in animals is called mad cow disease), CJD’s incidence is one case in a million annually. Few survive beyond a year after exhibiting symptoms, and there is no known cure for CJD.

The hospital at UCSF is the only place in this country that has a major laboratory doing both research and clinical trials. And Homer, his family and friends are making a big push to accelerate the pace of discovery for treatments and a cure, by raising money for the cause and pushing for even more aggressive development.

For those who want to help, there are several ways, including via donation to the Homer Family Foundation’s Program for Brain Disease Research (P.O. Box 10195, Palo Alto, Calif. 94303); the Homer Family Fund for Brain Research at the Harris myCFO Foundation (P.O. Box 10196, Palo Alto, Calif. 94303); or the UCSF Foundation, specifically to the “Fight for Mike Fund” or generally for neurodegenerative disease research and treatment.

Here is the long video, which–even at almost 60 minutes–is well worth it:

Since my post Friday about the fight to find a cure for Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, which has struck Silicon Valley veteran Mike Homer, many groups have written in, offering support.

They include: the CJD Alliance and the CJD Support Network in the United Kingdom; CJD Voice; and CJD Aware!. There are many other such groups, all using the Web to trade the latest information about this tragic illness.

Last week, a coterie of major tech players and friends of Homer’s gathered to try to make some progress beating the rare, neurodegenerative prion disease, which in Homer’s case has occurred sporadically rather than via infection (the well-known variant that occurs in animals is called mad cow disease).

CJD’s incidence is one case in a million annually, and few survive beyond a year after exhibiting symptoms.

Homer is being treated at the University of California at San Francisco, where the hospital is the only place in this country that has a major laboratory doing both research and clinical trials.

For those who want to help Homer’s cause, there are several ways, including via donation to the Homer Family Foundation’s Program for Brain Disease Research (P.O. Box 10195, Palo Alto, Calif. 94303); the Homer Family Fund for Brain Research at the Harris myCFO Foundation (P.O. Box 10196, Palo Alto, Calif. 94303); or the UCSF Foundation, specifically to the “Fight for Mike Fund” or generally for neurodegenerative disease research and treatment.

Last night, in an extraordinary gathering in Silicon Valley, friends and colleagues of Mike Homer came together to learn about his severe illness–the longtime tech veteran was recently diagnosed with Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.

In an event organized by Homer and his wife, Kristina, as well as close friends and well-known industry players Bill Campbell and Ron Conway, several hundred people crowded into the Palo Alto Sheraton to get a primer course about CJD from doctors at the University of California at San Francisco. (See video below.)

These doctors also happen to be the leading specialists in the world trying to find treatments and a cure for the cruel disease and include the man–Dr. Stanley Prusiner–who won the Nobel Prize in 1997 for discovering “prions,” infectious agents that are at the heart of CJD.

A rare, neurodegenerative prion disease, which in Homer’s case has occurred sporadically rather than via infection (the well-known variant that occurs in animals is called mad cow disease), CJD’s incidence is one case in a million annually, and few survive beyond a year after exhibiting symptoms.

Homer had been suffering from memory problems late last year. Another close friend, Netscape co-founder Marc Andreessen, aided Homer in getting to the right doctors at Stanford University Hospital, where he was diagnosed.

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