The Céline Dion Foundation gifted $2 million to the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, where Dion is being treated, for new cures and research on autoimmune neurological disorders, according to a news release. 

Dion is getting treatment at the campus for stiff persons syndrome, a rare, chronic and progressive autoimmune neurological disease that causes muscle stiffness, painful spasms and difficulty walking, according to the release. 

The money from Dion’s foundation will fund research in stiff persons syndrome and other similar diseases, and support Dr. Amanda Piquet, Dion’s doctor and an associate professor of neurology at the University of Colorado School of Medicine. 

Piquet was named the new endowed chair for the Céline Dion Foundation Endowed Chair in Autoimmune Neurology and money will help boost her field of study, helping her and the school do further research on cures, triggers, and patterns for earlier diagnosis. 

Neurological disorders like stiff persons syndrome can be difficult to diagnose and treat since they affect people differently, Piquet said. She was attracted to studying these disorders because of the challenge it presented, she told The Denver Gazette.

Dion has been under Piquet’s care since she was diagnosed with stiff persons syndrome in 2022. Dion has since become an advocate for supporting others who have been affected by it and Piquet has learned a lot about treating diseases like Dion’s through their work together, Piquet said.

Piquet said Dion has is “incredibly happy” with the progress she’s made and hopes her experience can help impact others with the same disease.

“My patients are really fundamental to the research,” Piquet said. “We learn from the patients. They’ll come to me about certain symptoms and we’ll work on that, and we’re like ‘this is interesting, let’s explore that more.'”

The disease does not have a cure yet, but the symptoms can be managed with symptomatic and immune therapies, Piquet said. 

Dion’s contribution will help advance those therapies and work toward hopefully finding a cure, she said. While one donation won’t necessarily lead researchers right to the cure, it will be vital in building on the foundation of knowledge about the disease, she said.

“This is an incredible gift that I am honored to receive,” Piquet said. “Céline is really bringing this public awareness to the disease, which is truly step one to learning more about it because once people know, we start asking more questions that will launch research that will allow us to define the disease better.”