As a first step toward implementing a multidisciplinary, translational approach to research on a treatment for LAM, we have assembled leading scientists and clinicians to take up the challenge of cracking this disease. These investigators are either leaders in LAM research or immersed in research highly relevant to finding a treatment for LAM. All have been moved by the human toll of LAM and by the underlying science. By bringing together these thought leaders to pool their knowledge, define and prioritize a set of research projects, and then recruiting the best talent and supporting collaborations, we believe we can significantly improve the chances of finding a treatment to LAM in the shortest time possible and point the way for research in other relevant diseases.

Expertise relevant to LAM research and potential therapies exists throughout the United States and internationally. We aim to facilitate and embolden networks between this tremendous expertise and the arguably unparalleled resources concentrated within the Boston-Cambridge medical research community and accessible to our organization. Harvard Medical School, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston Children's Hospital, Massachusetts General Hospital, the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Harvard School of Public Health, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the Broad and Whitehead Institutes, Boston University School of Medicine, and New England Medical Center are situated within miles of one of the most advanced biotech corridors in the United States, at the center of a USD $310 billion industry with the largest share of NIH funding in the country.

Given our strategic successes and ongoing mission to enlist support from the best and the brightest throughout the country and internationally, and in light of the challenges ahead, our immediate need is funding. We have mapped out a research timeline. The Boston-Cambridge academic and business community has donated expertise in strategic planning, nonprofit start-up, management and development. In tandem with our fundraising, we are leveraging the resources in our midst, fostering collaborations between LAM scientists and leaders in relevant fields and accelerating the pace of research in LAM and related diseases through expert-directed, multidisciplinary, translational research.