The Autoimmune Encephalitis Alliance awarded its first grant to the Autoimmune Brain Disease Program at Duke University Children’s Hospital. Co-directors of the Program, Dr. William Gallentine, Pediatric Neurology and Dr. Heather van Mater, Pediactric Rhuematology, accepted the grant and will use the funding to advance their ground-breaking, multidisciplinary clinic and related research. The $11,000 grant was raised from the first annual Florence Forth road race in March 2013. (Read the blog post about the race.) Florence Forth will be run again on March 1, 2014 in Durham, NC.
A core goal of the AE Alliance is to support multidisciplinary care and Centers of Excellence for diagnosis and treatment of autoimmune encephalitis. As additional funds are raised, the AE Alliance plans to support additional institutions throughout the country to advance care for AE so no one faces this disease alone.