During this year’s Commitment to Cures, we raised funds for research, heard powerful stories from people impacted by brain disease, and celebrated the progress we’ve made in research and treatment.
The American Brain Foundation’s largest annual fundraiser, Commitment to Cures, is a time for our community to gather, share the latest advancements in brain disease research from leading experts, and hear inspiring stories from people living with brain disease.
This year’s gala was emceed by Jim Cramer, host of CNBC’s Mad Money, and attended by over 500 people on April 26 in Boston. We were joined by a number of incredible researchers, scientists, and advocates—alongside a few celebrities—who are collectively leading the charge in the fight against brain disease.
Each year at Commitment to Cures, we honor leading researchers and advocates who have advanced our understanding of brain disease and brought awareness to the importance of funding research. At this year’s gala, we recognized several award recipients:
- Josep Dalmau, MD, PhD, FAAN, and Vanda Lennon, MD, PhD were honored with the Scientific Breakthrough Award for deepening our understanding of autoimmune neurologic diseases like encephalitis, stiff person syndrome, and others.
- HuffPost founder Arianna Huffington received the Public Leadership in Neurology Award for her work raising public awareness of the importance of sleep and brain health through her book, Sleep Revolution: Transforming Your Life One Night at a Time.
- Celebrated singer and guitarist Peter Frampton received the Ambassador Award for elevating public awareness of inclusion-body myositis, an inflammatory autoimmune disease he was diagnosed with in 2015.
We also recognized many others for their outstanding achievements in brain disease research and treatment.
We were honored to have two special guests with us, Frani Broussard and Tom Seaman, who shared their powerful stories of life with brain disease—and how funding research is the key to ending it. Frani’s son was diagnosed with adrenoleukodystrophy (ALD) at a young age, setting the family on a lifelong journey to find answers and treatment. Tom’s dystonia diagnosis upended his life in 2001, but in the years since, he has funneled his experience into a career in advocacy and works to empower people who are living with movement disorders around the world. Both represent a bright future for advocacy, education, and awareness, giving a voice to thousands of people living with brain diseases and disorders like ALD and dystonia.
With the help of our donors, we raised $565,000 for brain disease research. We also received support from a record number of sponsors who made this year’s Commitment to Cures gala such a success. All proceeds from this event go toward promoting and funding critical research that will uncover treatments and cures for many brain diseases and disorders. If you contributed this year, we thank you from the bottom of our hearts.
Without research, there will be no cures for the brain diseases and disorders that impact millions of people worldwide. This year’s Commitment to Cures raised critical funding that researchers need to make strides toward treatments and cures for all brain diseases. We are incredibly grateful for the overwhelming support we received from our sponsors, donors, researchers and advocates this year.
If you were not able to join us this year, you can still get involved with the American Brain Foundation by attending one of our many free webinars, keeping up with the latest news and research, or signing up for our newsletter.
The American Brain Foundation was founded to bring researchers and donors together in the fight against brain disease. Learn more about brain disease or make a gift to support groundbreaking brain disease research.