The mission of The Bee Foundation is to raise awareness of brain aneurysms and increase funding for innovative research that saves lives and prevents brain aneurysms. We are continuing to build a robust and dynamic research community with our Scientific Advisory Board, donors and network of researchers. Our community, grant recipients and research community, is committed to advancing brain aneurysm research.
Too often the signs of brain aneurysms go unnoticed and we lose those we love in the prime of their lives – 30,000 brain aneurysms ruptures per year, 40% resulting in death. Research and awareness are critical to fighting this disease and imagining a world where brain aneurysms can be PREVENTED!
The federal government spends only $2.08 per year on brain aneurysm research for each person afflicted. Lets change those numbers!
An estimated 6 million people in the United States have an unruptured brain aneurysm, or 1 in 50 people. The annual rate of rupture is approximately 8 per 100,000 people or about 30,000 people in the United States suffer a ruptured brain aneurysm. There is a brain aneurysm rupturing every 18 minutes.
Edgar Samaniego MD, 2019 TBF Grant Winner
Louis Kim MD, 2019 TBF Grant Winner
Aichi Chien MD, 2015 Grant Winner
Robert M. Starke MD, 2018 and 2022 Grant Winner
Ben A. Strickland MD, 2018 Grant Winner
Justin Mascitelli MD, 2017 Grant Winner
Jennifer Kim MD, 2017 Grant Winner
Chris Kellner MD, 2016 Grant Winner
Natalia Romano, 2018 TBF Fellow
Nicki Mohammadi, TBF Fellow
Stacey Q Wolfe MD, 2022 Grant Winner
Dr. Stacey Quintero Wolfe, Professor and Residency Program Director, Departments of Neurological Surgery and Radiology at the Wake University School of Medicine, has been awarded a $25,000 TBF research grant in honor of Brittany McCarthy, a vibrant 21 year old who passed away from a ruptured brain aneurysm in October of 2022.
Dr. Robert M. Starke, Professor in the Department of Neurological Surgery at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, has been awarded a $25,000 TBF research grant in honor of the Yezzi Family. Zac Yezzi, survived a ruptured brain aneurysm and AVM in 2021 and his family has been dedicated to spreading awareness and funding research.
Dr. Mascietlli was awarded a $25,000 grant to develop a multicenter, prospective registry of wide-neck intracranial aneurysms. The study, being the first of its kind, established a central repository for both unruptured and ruptured aneurysms treated by both microsurgical and endovascular techniques.
Recently Erin Kreszl, TBF Executive Director, spoke with MirHojjat Khorasanizadeh, our 2021 research grantee and a post doctoral research fellow with Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.
The goal of this research is to build genomic transcriptome profiles of key vascular factors from both aneurysmal and non-pathological tissue. These expression profiles will be compared between low- or high-risk aneurysms (scored using PHASES) in both ruptured and unruptured states.
Dr. Louis Kim, MD, is Professor and Vice Chairman of Neurological Surgery at the University of Washington, School of Medicine, and is chief of the neurological surgery service at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle. Louis and his team are the recipients of a 2019 TBF research grant. Recently, we had the chance to speak with him about his very promising research project.
