(Bloomberg) -- The University of California at Los Angeles is receiving a $120 million gift to seed the new California Institute for Immunology and Immunotherapy, a public-private partnership aimed at advancing research and medical breakthroughs.
The pledge from Gary K. Michelson and his wife, Alya, includes $50 million for the rapid development of vaccines and another $50 million for research focused on the microbiome — microorganisms such as fungi, bacteria, and viruses — to enhance human health.
An additional $20 million will be used to create an endowment supporting grants for young scientists in the fields of immunotherapy, immunology and vaccine development, UCLA said in a statement Tuesday.
“The vision for this institute is to become a ‘field of dreams’ — the world’s leading center for the study of the immune system to develop advanced immunotherapies to prevent, treat and cure all of the diseases that afflict people today and to end these diseases in our lifetime,” said Michelson, 75, a spinal surgeon, philanthropist and investor with nearly 1,000 patents in his name.
The Michelsons’ gift is among the largest ever for UCLA’s medical school. It follows significant donations by David Geffen, who has contributed $446 million in phases since 2002 to the medical center, which is named in his honor.
Disease Prevention
The mission of the immunology and immunotherapy institute is to break down silos between disciplines and to focus on research that prevents rather than treats diseases, Michelson said. Examples include developing vaccines to prevent cancer rather finding than treatments, such as chemotherapy, he said.
“This is not science fiction,” he said in an interview. “We can do this.”
Michelson is chair of the board of the institute, which he co-founded with philanthropists Meyer Luskin, Michael Milken and Sean Parker and physicians Eric Esrailian and Arie Belldegrun. It will be located at a former shopping mall acquired by UCLA in January, a space to be shared with the university’s Center for Quantum Science and Engineering.
The Michelsons’ wealth largely stems from a $1.35 billion legal settlement with medical device maker Medtronic Plc in 2005. While Michelson declined to disclose his current net worth, the Los Angeles Business Journal estimated it at $2.7 billion in 2023 — a figure Michelson described as “substantially high” due to his charitable giving.
In 2016, the Michelsons joined the Giving Pledge, an initiative launched by Bill Gates and Warren Buffett encouraging the wealthy to dedicate the majority of their fortunes to charity.
The institute “is yet another proof point that California remains the epicenter of global innovation – an endeavor that will benefit California, the United States, and the world,” California Governor Gavin Newsom said in the statement.
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