Lymphatic Education
& Research Network

• LE&RN Spokesperson Kathy Bates honored by Research America with "Impact on Public Opinion Award"
• LE&RN co-organizes the inaugural biennial researcher event Lymphatic Forum: Exploring the Lymphatic Continuum in Chicago, June 2017
• LE&RN partners with Harvard University Medical Schools for the first Lymphedema Symposium in Boston, MA

• March 6 officially established as World Lymphedema Day by U.S. Senate, New York legislature, and countries around the world
• International Chapters inaugurated
• LE&RN spearheads $70M US Senate Appropriations request sponsored by Sen. Schumer (NY)
• Spokesperson Kathy Bates takes LE&RN's mission center stage on a multitude of network television shows and print cover stories

• LE&RN/Fat Disorder Research Society Lipedema Postdoctoral Fellowship Awards established
• LE&RN/NAVBO partnership to establish biennial conference in lymphatics
• Agreement to transfer University of Pittsburgh’s Family Lymphedema Study bio-specimens into LE&RN’s tissue bank
• State Chapters inaugurated
• First Virtual Expo established
• LE&RN receives GreatNonprofits Top-Rated Award

• “Ask the Experts” web feature established to connect patients to leading authorities
• The LE&RN/LymphNotes Lymphedema Therapist Scholarship Program is founded
• NYC Walk to Fight Lymphedema and Lymphatic Diseases crosses Brooklyn Bridge for the first time
• The Face of Lymphedema Challenge and Membership Campaign are kicked off
• Academy Award-winning Actress Kathy Bates becomes LE&RN’s Spokesperson
• New York State Legislature awards funding for National Patient Registry & Tissue Bank

• LRF becomes LE&RN with an expanded mission and opens New York City office
• Live-streamed Medical & Research Symposium Series established

• LE&RN National Lymphatic Disease and Lymphedema Tissue Bank established
• Breakthrough study, blood test for diagnosis of lymphedema published—Stanford University School of Medicine Endowed Chair

• First annual Walk to Fight Lymphedema & Lymphatic Diseases
• LE&RN National Lymphatic Disease and Lymphedema Patient Registry created

• First-ever Endowed Chair of Lymphatic Research and Medicine at Stanford University School of Medicine established

• Postdoctoral fellowship awards program inaugurated

• Grants and Awards Programs established

• The Biennial Gordon Research Conference Series, Molecular Mechanisms in Lymphatic Function and Disease established

• Lymphatic Research and Biology, an international peer-reviewed journal, has its first printing

• Congressional and National Institutes of Health (NIH) support for lymphatic research and lymphatic diseases secured

• LE&RN is founded under the name Lymphatic Research Foundation to promote research, treatments and cures