Have you ever heard of anyone who ran a marathon or participated in a bake sale to raise money for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD)? Have you ever heard of the disease at all, also known as emphysema?

Emphysema is one of many diseases that don't get much public attention but should. It is the third leading cause of death in the United States. However, it receives stunningly less funding for research than cancer or HIV, which in comparison cause fewer deaths.

In 2004, The Global Forum on Health Research announced that only 10 percent of medical research was devoted to diseases that cause 90 percent of the world’s health burden. The gap has not been re-calculated in recent years, but it is clear that some of the deadliest diseases are still vastly underfunded.