Thank you for helping us meet — and beat! — the Brin Wojcicki Challenge!

It’s official: With your help, we’ve surpassed the $50-million Brin Wojcicki Challenge. Thanks to the enthusiasm and generosity of the Foundation’s community of donors, Challenge-eligible giving exceeded the original $50-million goal by about $3 million — additional dollars that Sergey Brin and Anne Wojcicki also agreed to match.

Here’s what Michael J. Fox had to say about it: “Anne and Sergey’s friendship to our Foundation and to Parkinson’s patients worldwide is awe-inspiring. As if a $50-million match weren’t tremendous in its own right, they’ve gone above and beyond their initial commitment to match the $3 million extra ponied up by our incredible supporters. There’s no doubt the Challenge has made our community stronger and more vibrant in its passionate pursuit of a cure.”

While we’re pausing to celebrate and give thanks today (well, not really — frankly, we never pause), at Foundation headquarters it’s full-steam ahead to keep meeting the challenges and opportunities we see before us. The Michael J. Fox Foundation and most of its research partners believe that the pipeline of new Parkinson’s treatments is as robust as it has been in decades, if not ever. Understanding of the factors underlying disease onset and progression is increasing, and insights from genetics are opening new avenues for therapeutic development. But in the midst of all this promising activity, government and commercial sources of research funding are continuing to dry up. Especially as more research approaches the clinic, where costs rise steeply, there has never been a more important time or a greater need for the Parkinson’s community to work together to ensure funding sufficient to keep the most promising projects moving forward. Take a peek at our press release on the Challenge completion for more details on the research that’s got us most excited in 2013.

Your help is getting us closer to a cure. Together, there’s no hurdle we can’t overcome. Thank you for being part of the answer to Parkinson’s disease!