About Multiple Sclerosis MS Stand-Up

MS Stand Up

MS Stand Up is a grassroots fundraising campaign powered by people living with multiple sclerosis and the people who love them. We’re a community on a mission: to keep promising, high-impact MS research alive while it’s still too new, too risky, or too unglamorous to attract institutional funding.

We’re not funding the usual suspects — we’re backing bold ideas.

Our efforts support cutting-edge investigations led by Dr. Timothy Vartanian at Weill Cornell Medicine, in collaboration with scientists at The Rockefeller University. These projects address unmet, often overlooked needs in the MS research ecosystem. They might not make headlines, but without them, the science stalls. We fund what’s essential — not what’s trendy.

Every dollar raised goes to the Joan and Sanford I. Weill Medical College of Cornell University, directed toward MS research under Dr. Vartanian’s leadership. Each year, the Mind Brain Philanthropic Foundation (MBPF) — the nonprofit behind MS Stand Up — evaluates where funding is most urgently needed to keep vital research moving until larger institutions can take it the rest of the way.

Our Origin Story

This campaign began with a couple: Regina, a person living with MS, and Ian, her partner in life and fundraising. Together, they set out to raise $3 million to support research that could change the MS landscape — specifically, identifying already-approved drugs that might be repurposed as remyelination therapies for people with MS.

They launched their first fundraiser in 2022, calling it the $3MM Campaign. No, they didn’t hit the full goal — but they did something just as important: they kept the research funded long enough for it to win support from larger institutional sources. And they didn’t stop there.

Regina’s sister Grace — CEO of Slingr.io — and her VP of Sales, David Doerre, helped take the campaign in a whole new direction: comedy. David, who had connections in the LA comedy scene, suggested a comedy benefit. That spark became the annual MS Stand Up event — and gave the campaign its name.

A Laughing Matter

In 2023, MS Stand Up took the stage at New York’s legendary Gotham Comedy Club, raising funds for Drs. Jennifer Linden and Susan Gauthier, who were investigating innovative MS imaging techniques.

In 2024, the campaign focused on Dr. Linden’s work developing simple blood tests that could help determine which treatments are most effective for an individual patient’s MS.

And in 2025, all money raised is going to support the groundbreaking research of Dr. Yinghua Ma, who is investigating the role of gut bacteria — specifically, which microbes may be triggering the cascade of events that leads to MS.