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Black Tie International:
IES Brain Foundation's Fifth Anniversary Gala Dinner
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Fellows Laud Mentors at
IES Brain
Foundation’s
Fifth Anniversary Gala Dinner
Photos by:
Pavle Ancevski
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Eric Simon, PhD (Inspiration,
Distinguished Neuroscientist and
Scientfic Committee Chair) with
Daughter Faye Simon-Harac
(Foundation President & Founder)
along with
Distinguished Neuroscientists:
Dr. Mary Jeanne Kreek
(Honorary Board Member) &
Dr. George Koob .
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Honoree Bruce McEwen,
PhD with
Founder & President, Faye Simon-Harac |
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Carol Resiss PhD, IES
Brain Research Foundation
2009 Teacher Recognition Recipient |
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Lorraine Cancro and Bob
Nicolaides |
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2009 Student Fellow
Jordan Maki with Boyfriend Marc Mezzacca |
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Kenneth Bonnet PhD, Dr. Judy Gao, Daughter YoYo with
Faye Simon-Harac |
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Levon
Capan MD, with Irene Simon (Foundation Namesake) |
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Corporate Sponsor Alkermes, Inc. |
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It is one thing to have
knowledgeable speakers at your
event and completely another to
find a genius who can engage as
well as energize your audience
by having them literally in
rapture. Irene & Eric Simon
Brain Research Foundation did
honor a very extraordinary
scientist, Bruce S. McEwen,
Ph.D. who served as keynote
speaker at their 5th Anniversary
Gala Dinner, The event began
with a cocktail hour at 6:45 pm,
during which, ‘Cash for Gold,”
and a silent auction took place,
up to the point when those
in attendance took their seats in anticipation of the wealth of
information they were about to
receive from the various
speakers,
as well as the honoree.
Opening the presentations was
Faye Simon-Harac, the
Foundation’s President &
Founder. Faye introduced her
mother Irene, who then
introduced, Eric Simon, Ph.D,
husband of over 60 years, the
inspiration for this Foundation,
as well as Scientific Committee
Chairperson. Dr. Simon’s fifty
years of outstanding research in
neuroscience at NYU, have been
crowned with huge success
including discovering opiate
receptors in the brain and
coining the word ‘endorphin.’
Following Dr. Simon at the
podium were faculty sponsors,
Drs. Steven Siegel and Howard
Weiner, each of whom spoke on
the results of their part in
this year’s Student Summer
Fellowship Program. Dr. Siegel,
professor at the University of
Pennsylvania, works on
schizophrenia. Dr. Howard Weiner
sharied his research on TSC and
non invasive surgery for
pediatric epilepsy.
With the faculty sponsors
lectures over, it was the
student fellows turn to address
the gathering. Ying Li spoke
about working on antidepressants
in the lab of Dr. Rene Hen at
Columbia University. She
expressed how through this
experience, she learned a lot of
lab technique & skills and that
it strengthened her “passion for
neuroscience and clinically
relevant research” Joseph Oved,
whose fellowship was with Dr.
Weiner working on Epilepsy,
declared that he is indebted to
his teacher for the knowledge he
acquired as a result of the
fellowship grant he received
from the IES Brain Research
Foundation. The final student to
speak, Jordan Maki spent the
summer in the lab of Dr. Eric
Klann at the Center for Neural
Science at New York University.
She thanked “the Foundation for
giving young scholars like
myself such a great
opportunity.” She and Dr. Klann
worked on genetic disorders that
may be linked to autism. She
ended with saying “the most
important thing I learned this
summer is that neuroscience
isn’t about perfect results and
pretty pictures. It’s about
dedicated people in sterile
rooms working towards a
solution, however elusive it may
be. “
The event program quoted a
student unable to attend, David
Foulad, who worked in a lab at
UCLA with Dr. Maria Castro,
where there were exciting
results on a new treatment that
will go to clinic trial this
year, for the deadly brain
cancer, Glioblastoma Multiforme.
The IES Brain Research
Foundation fellowship program
has given 26 students the
opportunity to study for a
summer, with top specialists in
neuroscience Many of the fellows
are so inspired by this
experience, that they have
decided to go on for a PhD in
neuroscience and some for an
MD/PhD. Through fundraising
events & donations, this
Foundation managed to collect
enough funds to make these
fellowships a reality. The hope
is that these bright, motivated
students will add to the work of
their remarkable mentors,
leading to effective treatments
& cures for devastating brain
diseases.
It was announced, that Dr. Judy
Gao and husband Kenneth Bonnet,
PhD (Foundation Board member &
secretary) donated a fellowship
for 2010 in memory of Dr. Gao’s
father and mother (who died of
Parkinson’s disease ) and Peter
Kaufmann donated a fellowship
for 2010 in memory of his wife
Hanni (who died of Alzheimer’s
Disease) . Quotes from fellows
of previous years can be found
on the website
www.iesBrainResearch.org
including students that got a
chance to work in a lab at
Harvard University or with Nobel
Prize winners Dr. Greengard and
Dr. Kandel at Columbia
University.
Following the students, it was
time for the honored guest to
speak on “Stress, Aging and the
Brain - the Good and the Not So
Good”. Taking the podium, Dr.
McEwen elaborated the ability of
the brain
to re-grow cells after a trauma,
injury or stress. As a
neuroscientist and a neuro-endocrinologist,
Dr McEwen focuses on stress
effects on the brain, The brain
is the master organ of stress,
because it determines what is
threatening or unexpected,
therefore ‘stressful,’ and also
because it regulates the
hormonal and neural processes
which help us adapt in the short
run. However, the very same
processes can cause problems
when that stress is excessive.
Long term or excessive worry
causes us to adopt behaviors,
also a function of the brain,
which can damage our health
because of overeating, not
sleeping well, smoking,
isolation or lack of exercise.
The brain is a target of stress
and demonstrates the ability to
adapt structurally and
functionally to acute and
chronic stress. Up to a point
these adaptations are reversible
and serve a useful purpose, but
when the brain changes do not
reverse themselves, there are
consequences such as chronic
anxiety, mood disorders and
cognitive impairment. These
effects accumulate with age. The
hippocampus is a key structure
involved in the formation of
memories, and it is one of the
first brain structures to show
degeneration in Alzheimer’s
disease and is affected by
chronic stress. The work of
Bruce McEwen, PhD and his
laboratory led to a realization
that stress hormone effects are
protective in the short run and
potentially damaging in the long
run. According to the guest
scientist, exercise can have
positive and protective effects.
A 30-minute regimen of exercise
a day can offer an enormous
protective effect in the
regeneration of brain
cells. Bruce McEwen, Ph.D., is
the co author of books Elizabeth
Lasley for a lay audience,
called The End of Stress as We
Know it.
After the honoree concluded his
discourse, everyone in the room
raised their glass in a
champagne toast by Dr. Ken
Bonnet, to the Fifth Anniversary
of the IES Brain Research
Foundation, a non-profit run
solely by the volunteer time of Faye
Simon Harac, with
occasional help from a few intermittent
volunteers.
A buffet dinner was served with
background music by the Two of
Clubs, and the Silent Auction
bidding resumed until about 10
pm. Teacher recognition for
motivating students in the field
of neuroscience, was received by
Carol Shoskes Reiss, PH.D. The
evening ended with the serving
of coffee & dessert and more
music by the Two of Clubs. There
was much positive and
enthusiastic feedback regarding
this wonderful evening.
Written by Bob Nicolaides and
edited by Lorraine Cancro, MSW and Faye Simon
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www.iesBrainResearch.org
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To list an upcoming event
please contact:
joyce@blacktiemagazine.com |
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