Spine surgeon and philanthropist Gary Michelson, MD, and his wife, Alya, donated $120 million to the University of California Los Angeles for its California Institute for Immunology and Immunotherapy.
The gift designated $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 endowment will provide research grants to scientists in immunotherapy, human immunology and vaccine research.
"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. He is co-founder and chair of the institute's board, which will be housed at UCLA's research park.