Romneys Opening Center to Fight Brain Disease

Their legacy already established in politics, Mitt Romney and his wife, Ann, are working to leave a lasting mark on neuroscience. Boston's Brigham and Women's Hospital today will announce the launch of the Ann Romney Center for Neurologic Diseases, a venture funded by the Romneys and their expansive political network that will assemble scores of the world's most accomplished doctors and scientists to collaborate against five neurological diseases that have no cure: multiple sclerosis, Alzheimer's, ALS, Parkinson's, and brain tumors. The Romneys and their friends from across the nation will gather in Boston tonight to promote the center, which represents an expansion and redesign of an existing neuroscience program.

It will be housed in a state-of-the-art building set to open in 2016. New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and Ohio Sen. Rob Portman are among the Republicans expected to join Democrats like Rep. Joe Kennedy and Marc Mezvinsky, Chelsea Clinton's husband, at the event. For the Romney family, the issue is personal: Ann was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 1998. Will it be part of Mitt's legacy? "This is more about 50 million people who are affected with various forms of neurologic diseases," he says. "I don't think legacy comes to mind so much as just wanting to make a difference in areas where we can." (More Mitt Romney stories.)