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August 25, 2020

$40 Million Gift to Pacific Brain Health Center

by Guest Author

Will & Cary Singleton Donate $40 Million to Pacific Neuroscience Institute’s Brain Health Center for Alzheimer’s Treatment & Research

SANTA MONICA (July 7, 2020) –A $40 million donation from Will and Cary Singleton will support the Pacific Neuroscience Institute (PNI) Brain Health Center at Providence Saint John’s Health Center in its pursuit of novel and effective treatments for patients with Alzheimer’s disease and related memory and cognition disorders.

“The Singleton gift is the largest single donation we’ve ever received and is a testament to the caliber of research, clinical care and medical talent that resides on our campus. The Singleton family has been supportive of Saint John’s for generations now and we hope their gift will inspire other philanthropists to join our campaign. We are immensely grateful for this transformative gift,” said Saint John’s Health Center Foundation (SJHCF) president and CEO, Bob Klein.

The generous donation will be counted as part of the Power of Partnership Campaign to raise $200 million for Providence Saint John’s Health Center and its affiliate institutes, including PNI and Saint John’s Cancer Institute.

“At PNI, we have a long track record in advancing novel approaches and conducting innovative clinical trials across the neurosciences. The Singleton gift will greatly accelerate our efforts to transform clinical data into discovery, and develop new standards of care for Alzheimer’s and related disorders,” says PNI founder and director, Daniel Kelly, M.D.

The Singletons said they are impressed with this program and wanted to help advance the research that will lead to a cure.

“PNI and Saint John’s Health Center have very innovative programs.  They’re able to move quickly with clinical trials, attract top-notch talent and they’re collaborative.  We’re confident that this investment will produce results in areas of medical research and treatment that to-date have proven difficult to solve,” says Will Singleton.

Already, PNI clinicians have used leading-edge quantitative diagnostic tools to implement personalized lifestyle medicine treatments in hundreds of patients. They are conducting an ongoing clinical trial assessing the impact of a cognitive fitness regimen for patients with early stage Alzheimer’s disease in collaboration with the Institute of Systems Biology, an affiliate of Providence.

The PNI team of clinician researchers aim to improve early detection and profiling the “at-risk” population using a combination of state-of-the-art neuroimaging, genomic data and blood biomarkers, while also refining targeted lifestyle interventions to slow or even reverse cognitive decline. They will also assess the impact of novel interventions such as stem cells and repurposed drugs for patients already in the grip of dementia. Given the likely long-term impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the team aims to further optimize telehealth platforms and remote care models for dementia patients, their family members and caregivers.  

David Merrill, M.D., Ph.D., Geriatric Psychiatrist and Director of PNI’s Brain Health Center, emphasizes that, “Given the huge numbers of patients globally succumbing to Alzheimer’s and the “silver tsunami” of at-risk patients on the horizon, we want our methods and findings to be translatable and applicable to the wider population, in essence, to develop best practices to help clinicians everywhere alter the trajectory of the disease, from diagnosis to treatment, and the entire cascade of related ailments such as depression, anxiety and caregiver distress.”

Cary Singleton added, “We looked at Alzheimer’s and thought, ‘who’s going to solve this problem?’ After evaluating programs across the country, we are convinced that PNI and St. John’s have the right approach, the right people and the necessary spirit of innovation to make significant progress in this critical fight.”

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About Saint John’s Health Center Foundation

The Saint John’s Health Center Foundation is a 501 (c)(3) that provides leadership and philanthropic support for Providence Saint John’s Health Center, the Saint John’s Cancer Institute and the Pacific Neuroscience Institute, that serve as catalysts for exceptional healthcare and research. For more information, visit  www.saintjohnsfoundation.org

About Pacific Neuroscience Institute

Pacific Neuroscience Institute provides leading edge clinical care and clinical trials for patients with a wide spectrum of neuroscience disorders including brain, skull base and pituitary tumors; stroke and related neurovascular diseases; adult hydrocephalus; vision, hearing and sinonasal disorders; facial pain syndromes; movement disorders, Alzheimer’s dementia and related memory, cognitive and mood impairments, and multiple sclerosis. Based primarily at Providence Saint John’s Health Center in Santa Monica and at Providence Little Company of Mary Medical Center Torrance, the PNI Medical Group employs over 35 physicians encompassing 11 sub-specialties working across nine clinical centers of excellence.  For more information, visit www.pacificneuro.org.

For more information on how to support Pacific Neuroscience Institute, contact PNIF Vice President, Melissa Coleman at 310-582-7615.

Last updated: August 31st, 2020