party watch
Houstonians honor health heroes and raise $450,000 for game-changing medical research
What: The Live Oak Legacy Dinner
Where:River Oaks Country Club
The scoop: Honoring the memory of two prominent medical figures, members of the Kelsey family hosted the Live Oak Legacy Dinner to support the Kelsey Research Foundation. The foundation is committed to advancing medical research, providing health education opportunities, and improving health and preventing and treating disease.
The evening, which paid tribute to Mavis P. Kelsey, Sr., MD and John R. Kelsey, MD, began with a cocktail reception followed by a seated dinner during which guests were served Chilean sea bass followed by River Oak’s traditional chocolate pecan ball.
The night began with an informative video that educated guests on the research being conducted by the Foundation. Following the video, guest speaker Dr. Michael Roizen, chief wellness officer at Cleveland Clinic and co-author with Dr. Mehmet Oz of You: The Owner’s Manual series, discussed the importance of gut health as a key to longevity. Dr. Herbert DuPont, president and CEO of KRF, joined Dr. Roizen onstage for an informative discussion.
This year’s dinner raised over $450,000 to support the research efforts of the KRF-UTHealth Center for Microbiome Research, which was established in 2014 as a collaboration between KRF and UTHealth’s McGovern Medical School and School of Public Health.
The center is dedicated to unlocking the mysteries of the gut microbiome and its possibilities to modify disease and improve health through the development and use of a capsule product. To date, KRF has successfully treated approximately 200 patients with a pure disorder of gut microbiota called Clostridium difficile infection (C. Diff) through a fecal microbiota transplantation capsule product.
Early research has indicated the same treatment method may also produce improvements in Parkinson’s disease, Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease, and Irritable Bowel Syndrome patient GI function and quality of life. As more detailed findings on cause and effect of alterations in the gut microbiota and disease are demonstrated, KRF’s research will help bring microbiome restoration therapy to market as a low-cost, high-science treatment for millions of patients who suffer from these diseases.
Who: Gaye and John Kelsey, Ann and Tom Kelsey, Wendy and Mavis Kelsey, Heidi and Bob Kelsey, Virginia W. Kelsey, Scotty Arnoldy, Debbie and John Daugherty, Cheri and Andy Fossler, Rolanette and Berdon Lawrence, John Poindexter, Kim and Dan Tutcher, and Jack and Ellie Sweeney.
