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Welcome to the 1st Touch Foundation and Project 3000.

Message from Derrek Lee:

Our initial vision was to build an academic youth center. As you may know, our daughter Jada, was recently diagnosed with Lebers Congenital Amaurosis (LCA) an extremely rare disease which causes severe vision loss and blindness. A cure has yet to be found. Since this is so close to our hearts, we have started Project 3000 in an effort to find all 3000 people in North America afflicted with this disease. Please go to the Project 3000 link www.project3000.org for more information. Our mission is to help researchers find a cure and eradicate this disease.

We will not lose sight of our children, and will continue to provide grants for higher education, and help those in our local communities. Thank you for your interest in helping us reach our goals!

Sincerely, Derrek L. Lee Founder

Project 3000 has 5 Major Goals
1	Provide hope for families affected with LCA.
2	Provide accurate information to parents of newly diagnosed patients about what to expect in their child's case.
3	Find the remaining genes responsible for LCA.
4	Find cures by identifying as many patients as possible, so that clinical trials will never be slowed for lack of sufficient patients.
5	Make genetic testing the standard of care for LCA by demonstrating the value of such testing to doctors and insurance companies across the country.

How you can help.
1	Help us identify individuals with LCA. »
	A major goal of Project 3000 is to identify all of the people in the United States, of any age, who have been diagnosed with LCA. If you know someone who has been diagnosed with LCA please encourage them to contact their doctor to ask about participating in Project 3000.
2	Make a contribution to Project 3000 fund. »
	This fund will be managed by the University of Iowa Foundation and The Carver Nonprofit Genetic Testing Laboratory in such a way that 100% of the money raised for this project will be used for genetic testing of LCA patients and research into the treatments and cures of inherited eye diseases that affect children.
3	Purchase a Project 3000 bracelet. »
	Proceeds go towards helping find a cure for Leber congenital amaurosis (LCA), a rare disease which causes severe vision loss and blindness.

Project 3000 – A year in review
	We’re Being Heard! There has been a tremendous increase in awareness of Leber’s Congenital Amaurosis. The combination of press conferences, news reports, pre-game and intra-game interviews, and numerous Project 3000 Days at Wrigley Field and many minor league baseball parks have reached millions of people with a message of hope: “There is something you can do”. Website hits, emails and phone inquiries about genetic testing for LCA have increased ten-fold since Project 3000 began. Top
	Medical Support is Growing! The directors of every ophthalmology training program in the United States have been contacted and informed about Project 3000. Dr. Stone will present a talk about LCA to the opening session of the annual meeting of the American Academy of Ophthalmology in New Orleans this November. Top
	Testing is Faster! The molecular methods that underlie the genetic test for LCA have been extensively refined and improved so that the chance of finding the specific molecular cause for an individual patient with LCA is now near 70% (up from about 50% one year ago). Even though additional genes have been added to the assay, the full test can now be performed 43% faster than it could one year ago. Top
	We Can Test Every Sample!The infrastructure of the Carver Nonprofit Genetic Testing Laboratory at the University of Iowa has been dramatically increased so that samples from all remaining LCA patients in the United States could be received in a single year if these individuals could be identified and were willing to submit samples. Top
	Funding is at an All Time High! More than $1M in philanthropic support for Project 3000 has been raised in the past year. A “no overhead” mechanism has been devised for handling these gifts through the University of Iowa Foundation. As a result, these funds are sufficient to provide state-of-the-art genetic testing for over 1000 families who lack insurance coverage or personal resources to pay for the testing themselves. Top
	More Samples are Coming in Than Ever Before! More than one sixth of the LCA patients in the US have already been tested for mutations in the known genes, and the results of this testing have been summarized and accepted for publication in a scientific journal. New samples from LCA patients are being received by the Carver Nonprofit Genetic Testing Laboratory at 5 times the rate they were before Project 3000 began and in the past 12 months, LCA samples have been received from 22 different states. Top
	We’re Moving Forward! A large volunteer infrastructure has been built for contacting LCA patients on a state-by-state basis. In the first year, specific emphasis has been placed on developing this infrastructure in Iowa, Illinois, Massachusetts, California, New York, Florida, Texas, and Kentucky. These eight states represent more than 40% of the population in the United States. In many states, the Lions Clubs have been engaged as partners. A full-time external relations director has been hired to oversee these efforts from Iowa City. Top
	We’re Getting the Word Out to 11 Million People!! On January 17th, 2008* Warner Bros. Studios’ hit show “ER” will feature an LCA awareness episode! Although the story line has not been completely developed, it will feature a child being tested and diagnosed with LCA. To close the episode, there will be an informational piece on Project 3000.

Project 3000 has 5 Major Goals

How you can help.

Project 3000 – A year in review