Dear Friends and Colleagues,

2022 has been a remarkable year for the Neurosurgery Research & Education Foundation (NREF). The Foundation awarded more than $2 million in grants and fellowships; we welcomed dozens of residents and fellows back to our in-person courses; Honor Your Mentor Funds reached the $7 million pledge milestone and the first annual Cushing Bowl launched in April.

The support of neurosurgeons, industry partners and affiliated organizations make these achievements possible.

The impact of your generosity is best exemplified by the success of those that have benefited from an NREF grant or fellowship award. The three examples below demonstrate the role the NREF plays as a catalyst in the research lives of the bright young stars in our field.

In 2016-17, Visish M. Srinivasan, MD, received an NREF Research Fellowship Grant. The research he conducted with NREF funding led to a Phase 1 clinical trial that is ongoing at the MD Anderson Cancer Center. Meanwhile, he finished training and launched a lab at the University of Pennsylvania, where he’s the neurosurgical director of the Kim Family Neurovascular Innovations Lab where they are conducting translational research for neurovascular disease, with a focus on endovascular technologies. His initial pilot project is studying the molecular mechanisms underpinning flow diversion for aneurysms.

Teresa Purzner, MD was awarded an NREF Research Fellowship Grant in 2014-15. Thanks to the research supported by her NREF grant, Dr. Purzner discovered a new drug target for medulloblastoma. In collaboration with Stanford SPARK and the pediatric brain tumor consortium, she bridged this discovery from bench to bedside in the form of a multi-insitutional phase ½ clinical trial for the treatment of medulloblastoma. This work has earned her widespread recognition both in the media and through national and international awards including the Stanford Interdisciplinary Graduate and BioX fellowship, Annual Award of the American Academy of Neurological Surgery, the Weston Havens Foundation award, K.G. McKenzie Prize for Basic Science Research and the AANS Louise Eisenhardt Award. In 2021, she was named a Canadian top 40 under 40.

Currently, Dr. Purzner works with her husband – and fellow NREF Research Fellowship Grant recipient – Dr. Jamie Purzner, at Queen’s University in Ontario. Together, they run a research program focused on differentiation therapy for medulloblastoma and tools to promote personalized, precision therapy for patients with glioblastoma.

The Albert L. Rhoton Honor Your Mentor (HYM) Fund awarded a 2018-19 NREF Young Clinician Investigator Award to Maria Peris-Celda, MD, PhD. With the grant, Dr. Peris-Celda established the Northeast Neurosurgical Anatomy Laboratory at Albany Medical Center in Albany, NY, where they trained surgical anatomy research fellows and created a functional and completely active laboratory with equipment for dissection, high definition photodocumentation and publication. The funding covered expenses for the dissections and medical illustrations for the book “Techniques and Key Points for Endoscopic Cranial Base Reconstruction” published with Dr. Carlos Pinheiro-Neto in 2021.

In January 2021, Dr. Peris-Celda joined the Neurosurgery Department at Mayo Clinic Rochester, MN, and was instrumental in developing a Mayo Clinic Neurosurgical Anatomy Program that evolved into the officially named “The Rhoton Neurosurgery and Otolaryngology Surgical Anatomy Program” at Mayo Clinic.

Since receiving the Rhoton award, Dr. Peris-Celda has worked on more than fifty surgical anatomy projects either published or ongoing, has one published book, three North American Skull Base Society Rhoton Awards and more than 10 research fellows trained, including Christopher Graffeo, MD, a mentee who is the 2022-23 recipient of an NREF Young Clinician Investigator Award with support from the Rhoton HYM Fund.

We’re delighted and gratified to share these NREF success stories with you, and we and look forward to bringing more of these stories to your attention in the year ahead.

Please know that Drs. Srinivasan, Purzner and Peris-Celda are not alone among our grant recipients. A total of 82% of NREF awardees between 2000 and 2015 obtained later funding, totaling more than $770M – an impact ratio of $1:$134. I am comfortable saying that the contribution you make to NREF has a greater impact than almost any other contribution you could consider. Certainly, investigation has shown a greater return on investment with contributions to NREF than for other surgical specialties.

The way forward for our specialty is with a renewed focus education and research. Please join us in supporting efforts to establish new relationships and strengthen existing collaborations; for supporting an environment that leads to opportunities for meaningful discovery in neurosurgery.

To make a tax-deductible donation, visit our secure online Donate page. Your gift will help to advance neurosurgery and improve neurosurgical care for our patients.

Thank you for your continued support of the NREF!