AURORA, Colo. — The Céline Dion Foundation will donate $2 million to Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus over the next five years.
The investment will fund the Céline Dion Foundation Endowed Chair in Autoimmune Neurology at CU Anschutz. The hope for the position is to further research into auto-immune neurological disorders like Stiff Person Syndrome (SPS), which Dion was diagnosed with in 2022 and is currently being treated for at the CU Anschutz Medical Campus in Aurora.
The Céline Dion Foundation has given $2 million to #CUAnschutz to advance autoimmune neurological disease research. Amanda Piquet, MD, of @CUMedicalSchool said Dion's gift represents a turning point for stiff person syndrome and other related diseases. https://t.co/s5yLGfCFNe
— CU Anschutz Medical Campus (@CUAnschutz) June 18, 2024
There is currently no cure for the disease, according to CU Anschutz.
SPS is characterized by muscle stiffness, painful spasms and difficulty walking. But it can be managed with symptomatic and immune therapies to improve a patient's quality of life, CU Anschutz said.
“SPS and other rare autoimmune neurological disorders can be difficult to diagnose and treat because they often affect individuals differently. This generous gift from the Céline Dion Foundation and the overall increased awareness for SPS will change the future of not only diagnosing the disease but will catapult research efforts to explore new approaches of treatment,” Dion's doctor Amanda Piquet said.
Piquet has been named the first Céline Dion Foundation Endowed Chair in Autoimmune Neurology at CU Anschutz.
She is the current director of the Autoimmune Neurology Program at CU Anschutz, the medical campus said.
In her role as the Céline Dion Foundation Endowed Chair in Autoimmune Neurology at CU Anschutz, Piquet will focus, in part, on expanding the autoimmune neurological disease registry and biorepository. Piquet will spearhead the effort to collect more data that could shed light on the causes of SPS, CU Anschutz said.
The goal is the funding will allow Piquet to build upon her existing work treating patients like Dion with rare autoimmune neurological disorders, according to CU Anschutz.
Dion announced the funding ahead of the premiere of her 'I am Céline Dion' documentary next week.
It starts playing in theaters nationwide on Friday, June 21, and will be available to stream on Amazon Prime Video next Tuesday, June 25.
