RUTHERFORD, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The Staglin Family celebrated the 22nd annual Music Festival for Brain Health on September 17 in the Napa Valley, raising $5.6 million to benefit the IMHRO/ONE MIND™ Institute and ONE MIND™. The 22-year cumulative total, including direct contributions to ONE MIND™, and leveraged funds provided to scientists as a result of IMHRO’s initial research funding from festival proceeds, now surpasses $256 million dollars.
IMHRO and ONE MIND™ together have become the nation’s leading private-public mental health organizations dedicated to curing brain-related diseases, including depression, schizophrenia, traumatic brain injury and bi-polar illness, focusing on issues including funding, research, advocacy, open science principles, and anti-stigma.
"We couldn’t be happier with the results of this year’s festival and are thrilled to have surpassed a quarter billion dollars raised,” stated Shari and Garen Staglin. “The amazing support we continue to receive helps us fund the doctors and scientists that provide important scientific discoveries - breakthroughs that unlock the mysteries of the brain and make a difference in so many lives.”
The 22nd annual festival began with a scientific symposium, featuring keynote speaker Steven McCarroll, Ph.D., of the Stanley Center for Psychiatric Research at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, and of Harvard Medical School, and David. O. Okonkwo, M.D., Ph.D. Executive Vice Chair of Neurosurgery at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center.
A symposium highlight was the announcement of the 2016 Rising Star Awards. IMHRO’s Scientific Advisory Board has chosen Drs. Mazen Kheirbek, PhD, and Mary Kay Lobo, PhD, to receive the 2016 IMHRO/Janssen Rising Star Translational Research Awards, and Dr. Kate Fitzgerald, MD, to receive the 2016 IMHRO/AIM Sullivan Family Foundation Rising Star Award. Full details of each research project can be found at https://www.imhro.org/research-education/rising-star-awards.
The IMHRO Rising Star awards encourage the community of researchers to direct their efforts toward translational science while supporting the research of emerging leaders in the field. They also fill a critical gap of support as federal funds dedicated to research continue to decline. The 2016 Rising Star Award winners were selected with the assistance and recommendations of the IMHRO scientific advisory board, which includes ten of the leading brain scientists in the world, noted for their pioneering research in their respective fields. Each Rising Star recipient will receive $250,000 to fund research for his or her studies.
Following the symposium, a tasting of some of the world’s most acclaimed wines took place in the Staglin Family Vineyard winery caves, with hors d’oeuvres provided by Chef Curtis Di Fede of celebrated Miminashi in Napa. Musician, filmmaker and humanitarian, Michael Franti & Spearhead took the stage for an energetic and intimate concert followed by the post-concert VIP dinner featuring the cuisine of James Beard Award-winning Chef Gerard Craft of Niche in St. Louis and Nashville.
Donations to the Music Festival for Brain Health may be made on-line at www.imhro.org, or by sending a check to IMHRO, a 501 (c) (3) non-profit organization that sponsors the Music Festival. Please mail donations to: P.O. Box 680, Rutherford, Calif., 94573. The date for the 2017 Music Festival for Brain Health has been set for Saturday, September 16, 2017.
For more information, please call Cindy Dyar at (707) 963-4038 or email Cindy@imhro.org or visit www.music-festival.org.
300 DPI digital images available upon request
Recap video available at vimeo.com: https://vimeo.com/183329840
About IMHRO/ONE MIND™ Institute (“IMHRO”)
IMHRO is committed to raising awareness and funding research to find preventions and cures for schizophrenia, major depression and bipolar disorder within a generation. IMHRO is led and supported by families and individuals whose lives have been touched by brain disorders - and who have seen how far mental health research has come in the last decade. Contributions to IMHRO and ONE MIND™ have resulted in more than $256 million for research, changed thousands of lives, and funded stunning discoveries for better therapies now and tomorrow. www.imhro.org
About ONE MIND™
ONE MIND™ is a new-model non-profit organization that is taking the lead role in the research, funding, marketing, and public awareness of mental illness and brain injury, by bringing together the governmental, corporate, scientific, and philanthropic communities in a concerted effort to drastically reduce the social and economic effects of mental illness and brain injury. With ONE MIND™ as the hub for open-science, big data, and research, compelling the scientific, health care, and pharmaceutical communities to collaborate completely for the common good, we can accomplish what would have previously required 50 years to less than a decade. www.onemind.org
