The University of California Los Angeles received a $120 million donation from billionaire spine surgeon and philanthropist Gary Michelson, MD, and his wife, Alya Michelson, for its California Institute for Immunology and Immunotherapy.
The donation will allocate $100 million to establish two research entities — one for rapid vaccine development and one on leveraging the microbiome to advance human health, according to an Aug. 27 news release from UCLA. Another $20 million will go toward research grants to scientists in immunotherapy, human immunology and vaccine research.
The California Institute for Immunology and Immunotherapy will be the primary occupant of UCLA's research park and was co-founded by Meyer Luskin, Eric Esrailian, MD, Arie Belldegrun, MD, Michael Milken and Sean Parker. UCLA acquired the property in January.
"Immunology is the mediator of nearly all human diseases, whether we're talking about cancer or heart disease or Alzheimer's," Dr. Michelson said in the release. "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."
Dr. Michelson is a spine surgeon and has nearly 1,000 individual patents, the release said. He is one of the richest physicians in the U.S. with a net worth of $1.8 billion.