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Stem cell research at Keck Medicine of USC boosted by $2 million gift from The Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation Investment supports emerging scientists preparing to start their own laboratories
LOS ANGELES May 20, 2014—Keck Medicine of USC has received a $2 million gift from The Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation to support the development of promising regenerative medicine researchers at The Eli and Edythe Broad Center for Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research at USC.
The gift establishes the first series of Broad Fellows—exceptional senior postdoctoral researchers who are preparing to start their own laboratories. It will also support core research facilities and innovative projects at USC, home to one of only two dedicated university stem cell research centers in Los Angeles.
“This generous gift ensures that USC’s stem cell research center will continue to attract the best and brightest emerging talent and encourages their pioneering work as they transition into the next stage of their careers,” said Andy McMahon, Ph.D., F.R.S., director of the Eli and Edythe Broad Center for Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research at USC. “The fresh views that come from promising scientists have always been the lifeblood of innovation.”
To advance the next generation of scientists, the gift provides ongoing support for the center’s state‐of‐the‐art core facilities in imaging, therapeutic screening, flow cytometry and stem cell isolation and culture. It also enables strategic investments in the innovative research projects that will become tomorrow’s clinical advances in regenerative medicine.
The investment comes at a critical time. With government dollars for promising researchers in short supply, the gift helps ensure USC will remain a destination for the next pioneers in regenerative medicine and stem cell research. Patients will also reap the rewards of this research in the form of future stem cell‐based cures.
Philanthropic leaders in biomedical research as well as many other fields, philanthropists Eli and Edythe Broad created USC’s stem cell research center with a $30 million gift to the Keck School of Medicine of USC in February 2006.
A renowned business leader who built two Fortune 500 companies over a 50‐year career, Eli Broad is the founder‐chairman of both SunAmerica Inc. and KB Home (formerly Kaufman and Broad Home Corporation). He is also a member of the Board of Overseers of the Keck School of Medicine of USC.
“We believe that the promise of stem cells—and the research underway at USC—is limitless,” said Eli Broad. “For us, this is an opportunity to advance essential research in hopes of finding new treatments for the many diseases that are still untreatable.”
About Keck Medicine of USC
Keck Medicine of USC is the University of Southern California’s medical enterprise, one of only two university‐owned academic medical centers in the Los Angeles area. Encompassing academic, research and clinical entities, it consists of the Keck School of Medicine of USC, the region’s first medical school; the renowned USC Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center, one of the first comprehensive cancer centers established in the United States; the USC Care Medical Group, the medical faculty practice; the Keck Medical Center of USC, which includes two acute care hospitals: 401‐licensed bed Keck Hospital of USC and 60‐licensed bed USC Norris Cancer Hospital; and USC Verdugo Hills Hospital, a 158‐licensed bed community hospital. It also includes outpatient facilities in Beverly Hills, downtown Los Angeles, La Cañada Flintridge, Pasadena, and the USC University Park Campus. USC faculty physicians and Keck School of Medicine departments also have practices throughout Los Angeles and Orange counties. The Keck Medicine of USC world‐class medical facilities are staffed by nearly 600 physicians who are faculty at the renowned Keck School of Medicine of USC and part of USC Care Medical Group. They are not only clinicians, but cutting‐edge researchers, leading professors and active contributors to national and international professional medical societies and associations. For more information, go to keckmedicine.org/beyond.
About The Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation
The Broad Foundations, which include The Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation and The Broad Art Foundation, have a combined mission of advancing entrepreneurship for the public good in education, science and the arts. The Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation invests in innovative scientific and medical research in the areas of human genomics, stem cell research and inflammatory bowel disease. In an unprecedented partnership with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Harvard University and its affiliated hospitals and the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research, the Broads committed $700 million to fund The Broad Institute, the world’s leading genomic medicine research institute that is focused on using the power of genomics to understand human disease. The Broad Foundation has also invested in advancing stem cell research, particularly in California through the creation of the Eli and Edythe Broad CIRM Center for Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research at USC, the Eli and Edythe Broad Center of Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research at UCLA and the Eli and Edythe Broad Center of Regeneration Medicine and Stem Cell Research at UCSF. For more information, visit www.broadfoundation.org.
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