What do we know about the brain, our most essential organ? Very little. It might even be possible that scientists know more about the universe than neuroscientists know about the brain. Yet nearly one billion people worldwide suffer from neurological or psychiatric disorders. There is an urgent need to speed up and fund scientific research.
This is precisely what Paris Brain Institute, an international scientific and medical research center of 800 neuroscientists, researchers and entrepreneurs located at the heart of the Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital in Paris, did last week at the French Consulate in New York when it launched its American non-for-profit Paris Brain Institute America.
For this first fund-raising dinner of Paris Brain Institute America, Academy Award Winner Michelle Yeoh and world-renowned actor Jean Reno, both ambassadors of Paris Brain Institute since its creation in 2010, joined the efforts of the Chair of Paris Brain Institute America and publisher Martine Assouline, the President of Paris Brain Institute Professor Gérard Saillant, its executive director Alexis Brice, Dr. Bassem Hassan and Dr. Claire Wyart, along with the dinner co-chairs: Publicis Chairman Maurice Lévy, motor racing executive Jean Todt, Richard Mille, as well as Leticia and Stanislas Poniatowski, and Nicolas and Natasha Poniatowski.
“The launch of Paris Brain Institute America marks a new step in our journey to fund and support brain research, and more specifically, international collaborations,” Yeoh told the audience of 90 business leaders, financiers, and philanthropists.
“The goal of Paris Brain Institute America is to foster collaboration between scientists, clinicians, partners, and donors on both sides of the Atlantic so that we can accelerate research on brain diseases,” Martine Assouline added. “This partnership will advance science and improve the lives of millions worldwide.”
“Don’t forget,” Dr. Bassem Hassan explained during a conference at the Lycée Français of New York earlier last week: “We are our brain, and our brain is who we are.”
By the end of the evening, Paris Brain Institute America had raised its first half million dollars to move brain research forward.
Click here to learn more about Paris Brain Institute America.
