Bob Saget, Whoopi Goldberg, George Lopez and other special guests along with Top Chef Masters Bring Cool Comedy - Hot Cuisine to New York on December 2

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Nov 25, 2014, 09:16 ET

SAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 25, 2014 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Bob Saget will host Cool Comedy – Hot Cuisine, the 10^th Annual New York gala to benefit the Scleroderma Research Foundation (SRF) on, Tues., December 2 at Carolines on Broadway. Saget, an SRF Board Member who lost his sister to scleroderma, will be joined in the fundraising effort for this often life-threatening disease by comedians Whoopi Goldberg and George Lopez, along with other surprise special guests.

Comedian Bob Saget will host the 10th annual New York Cool Comedy - Hot Cuisine, a benefit for the Scleroderma Research Foundation on Tuesday, December 2, 2014 at Carolines on Broadway.

Presented by Actelion Pharmaceuticals, Cool Comedy – Hot Cuisine benefits the Scleroderma Research Foundation—America's first and leading nonprofit investor in medical research to find improved therapies and a cure for people living with scleroderma. Celebrity chefs/restaurateurs Susan Feniger (also an SRF Board Member) and Mary Sue Milliken, Food Network's Too Hot Tamales and both Bravo Top Chef Masters, will prepare the multi-course "Hot Cuisine" featuring Latin-inspired dishes from their popular Border Grill Restaurants.

"The recent research progress has been remarkable," says Saget. "Thanks to advances that the SRF is making possible, patients are living longer, fuller lives. Our funded researchers have recently linked scleroderma's onset to cancer and, in a separate study, they have shown that the disease's harmful scarring can not only be stopped, but actually reversed in the lab."

The success of Cool Comedy – Hot Cuisine events held in Las Vegas, Los Angeles, New York and San Francisco has raised considerable awareness for scleroderma and enabled the SRF to fund innovative research bringing hope and helping to improve the quality of life for patients suffering from this debilitating disease. Since its founding in 1987, the Foundation has taken a collaborative approach, bringing together some of the brightest minds in science to unravel the mystery of this complex autoimmune disease.

The word scleroderma literally means "hard skin," but the disease is much more, often affecting the internal organs with lethal consequences. In some cases, the joints and muscles are affected, resulting in severe pain and limited mobility. Vascular damage due to scleroderma can result in loss of fingers, toes and entire limbs—but the most serious complications involve the lungs and kidneys.

Tickets for Cool Comedy – Hot Cuisine start at $500 with tables of six available for $5,000 and tables of 10 available at $10,000 and $25,000. All monies raised benefit the Scleroderma Research Foundation. Advance reservations are required. For more information, call (800) 441-CURE or visit www.sclerodermaRESEARCH.org.

More about Scleroderma and the Scleroderma Research Foundation:

The symptoms and severity of scleroderma vary from one person to another and the course of the disease is often unpredictable. Women are disproportionately affected with scleroderma (representing four out of five patients), usually striking in the prime of their lives, between the ages of 20 and 50; however, children and men of all ages and across all ethnic boundaries can also be affected.

Today, there is no way to prevent scleroderma and there is no cure. Treatments are available for some but not all of the most dangerous complications. The continued success of the Scleroderma Research Foundation is entirely dependent upon charitable gifts from individuals and corporations.

Dr. Fredrick Wigley, Director of the Johns Hopkins Scleroderma Center, which was launched with SRF funding and continues to grow with Foundation support, states in the volunteer-produced Project Scleroderma documentary, "the SRF has made an incredible difference, and I am absolutely convinced that, with the right support, there is nothing that can't be done."

The SRF was established in San Francisco in 1987 by scleroderma patient, the late Sharon Monsky, with a passionate commitment that lives on today: to use the power of collaborative medical research to advance a cure for scleroderma. Chaired by Luke Evnin, Ph.D., managing partner of MPM Capital, a dedicated investor in life sciences, the Foundation is enabling scientists from leading institutions across the nation and around the world to work together and develop an understanding of how the disease begins, how it progresses and what can be done to slow, halt or reverse the disease process.

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SOURCE Scleroderma Research Foundation