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.
The purpose of this program is to promote novel approaches to the early detection and prevention of ruptured cerebral aneurysms, or early emergency and critical care treatment. We fund proposals that test an innovative hypothesis or develop new outcomes via interdisciplinary or translational research.
Since 2014 TBF has funded 23 research grants and 2 fellowships to leading neuroscientists. Private funding is first step to achieving meaningful scientific advancements that will save lives.
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 $3.02 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.
Andrew Hale, MD, PhD 2025 TBF AVM Grant Winner
Edgar Samiengo, MD 2025 TBF Grant Winner
Peyton Nisson, MD 2025 TBF Grant Winnter
Sean Polster, MD 2025 TBF Grant Winner
Hazem Shoirah, MD 2024 TBF Best Practices Grant Winner
Andrew Hale, MD, PhD, 2024 TBF Grant Winner
Rosalind Lai, MD, 2024 TBF Grant Winner
Tanyeri Barak, MD, 2024 TBF Grant Winner
Natália Vasconcellos, MD, MSc, 2024 Health Equity Grant
Scott Simon, MD, 2023 TBF Grant Winner
Visish M. Srinivasan, MD, 2023 TBF Grant Winner
David Altschul, MD, 2023 TBF Grant Winner
Stacey Q Wolfe, MD FAANS, 2022 TBF Grant Winner
Robert M. Starke, MD, MSc, 2022 TBF Grant Winner
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
We are thrilled to announce Dr. Andrew T. Hale as the inaugural recipient of the TBF AVM Preventative Research Grant! Dr. Hale’s research focuses on AVM (Arteriovenous Malformation) prevention and treatment, with the goal of bringing new hope to patients and families affected by these complex conditions.
We couldn’t be more excited to support Dr. Hale and the groundbreaking work he is doing.
We share updates on two of our 2024 Research Grant Recipients and the important work they are advancing toward that future.
Erin Kreszl, TBF Executive Director, talks with Dr. Visish M. Srinivasan about the 2023 TBF Brittany McCarthy Research Grant examining the epigenetics involved in aneurysms.
Erin Kreszl, TBF Executive Director, talks with David Altschul and Muhammed Essihayi about their 2023 TBF Yezzi Family Research Grant to understand the mental health impacts on brain aneurysm patients
Erin Kreszl, TBF Executive Director, catches up with Dr. Scott Simon on the outcome of the 2023 TBF Lora Beth Ritchie Research Grant exploring the relationship of iron metabolism to aneurysms
TBF’s first health equity grant – a milestone in our track record of innovative grant giving – originated with the vision of one woman who wanted to recognize her personal history and ‘pay it forward.’ TBF Ambassador Elizabeth Ratta’s goal was to honor her grandmother, Rita Skertich, who had an aneurysm in the 1970’s at a time when the condition was little understood and treatment options limited. The result: The TBF Rita Skertich Brain Aneurysm Health Equity grant.
Dr. Scott Simon, an experienced neurosurgeon and the Director of the Division of Cerebrovascular Surgery at Penn State College of Medicine, has spent 20 years at the bedsides of aneurysm patients. It’s that experience that led him to want to do more than simply treat the after-effects of patients’ brain bleed, and a reason why he joined with a multi-functional team of experts at Penn State College of Medicine in one of the three research projects funded by The Bee Foundation in 2023 to explore new avenues to brain aneurysm treatment.
The Bee Foundation awards the Brittany McCarthy Preventative Brain Aneurysm Research Grant to Visish M. Srinivasan, M.D., Assistant Professor of Neurosurgery at the University of Pennsylvania. Brittany McCarthy, a vibrant 21 year old who passed away from a ruptured brain aneurysm in October of 2021.
David Altschul has been an endovascular neurosurgeon for nine years. He’s also an indefatigable researcher, specifically in new approaches in endo-vascular neurology, treatment techniques and disparity research. His focus on treatment approaches is reflected in the project which The Bee Foundation has funded as one of the three 2023 grant awards for research into innovative approaches to detection, prevention, and treatment.
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.
