More than 250 people gathered at the Griffin Club in Cheviot Hills on January 6, 2018, for the 5th Annual Golden Portal Awards. The fundraiser brunch, hosted by Ted Gagliano, president of post-production at 20th Century Fox Film Corp., and former Fox colleague Loic Bailly, raises money to benefit brain cancer research in the Department of Neurosurgery at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA.
Top : (From left): Dr. Judith C. Gasson, Loic Bailly, Dr. Linda Liau, Ted Gagliano and Johnese Spisso, president of UCLA Health and CEO of the UCLA Hospital System. Middle: (From left): UCLA neurosurgery residents Drs. Bayard Wilson, Matthew Sun and Giyarpuram Prashant. Bottom: Tenacious Bravery Award honoree Jamil Newirth (left) and Dr. Linda Liau. Photos: Vince Bucci
The event joins movies and medicine, and this year’s theme of “tenacity” was recognized in characters who exhibited great tenacity in the movies Battle of the Sexes, Dunkirk, The Mountain Between Us and Murder on the Orient Express. Original props and small vignettes of each film were shown, creating an interactive setting for guest photos.
Medical honorees included Jamil Newirth, who received the Tenacious Bravery Award. Diagnosed with a stage-four glioblastoma, a rare and aggressive form of brain cancer, he was the first patient to receive the glioblastoma vaccine from Dr. Linda Liau (RES ’97, FEL ’98, PhD ’99, MBA), director of the UCLA Brain Tumor Program and chair of the UCLA Department of Neurosurgery, and successfully complete the trial.
Dr. Liau presented Dr. Judith C. Gasson, director of the David Geffen School of Medicine Technology Accelerator and former director of the UCLA Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center, with the Tenacious Discovery Award for her work to purify a hormone-like substance that increases the speed of bone marrow cell reproduction. This purified substance is used to help prevent infections in cancer patients and allow patients to tolerate more chemotherapy and radiation than had previously been possible.
Guests enjoyed a mini-fundraiser called “Adopt A Resident,” with UCLA neurosurgery residents on hand to talk about their research interests with guests and what it is like to be a resident in the UCLA Department of Neurosurgery. Since its inception in 2012, the Golden Portal Awards have raised more than $2 million to help UCLA patients receive the most innovative brain cancer therapies available.
For more information, contact Porcha Dodson at: 310-267-9472
