Med School Given $10.5 Million, Largest Gift Ever
Anonymous donor funds Breast Cancer Research Center
An anonymous graduate of the Boston University School of Medicine has pledged $10.5 million to the school to create a Breast Cancer Research Center. MED’s largest individual gift to date, the pledge includes an assistant professorship and an international scholars training program.
“This exceedingly generous commitment is an important investment in breast cancer research that will facilitate discovery and accelerate the development of diagnostics and treatment for this common life-threatening disease,” says Karen Antman, MED dean and provost of the Medical Campus. “We are particularly grateful that our graduate has chosen to support this important work.”
Antman says the donor, a cancer survivor who has worked on health-care projects in developing countries, saw this project as an opportunity to serve those in need close to home, a need she recognized while training at Boston City Hospital. She chose the School of Medicine in part because of the Medical Campus’ tradition of caring for the poor and underserved who will benefit from this research, Antman adds.
Gail Sonenshein, a MED professor of biochemistry and director of the Women’s Health Interdisciplinary Research Center, says the gift will allow the School of Medicine to advance breast cancer research in new and exciting ways.
“We are incredibly grateful for this very generous gift,” Sonenshein says. “The funds will be used to develop a new Breast Cancer Research Center on the Medical Campus, recruit new faculty members, train scientists from the developing world, and fund pilot grants to help us understand the molecular basis of this devastating disease in diverse populations and for translational research projects that we hope will rapidly develop into new therapies.”
The pledge will also support construction of a nine-story residence that will house 208 first-year medical students.
“Health disparities are a major concern in our society,” says BU President Robert A. Brown. “This gift will contribute toward closing the disparities gap and will benefit the underserved and most disadvantaged in our community. Boston University is deeply grateful.”
Art Jahnke can be reached at jahnke@bu.edu.
Comments & Discussion
Boston University moderates comments to facilitate an informed, substantive, civil conversation. Abusive, profane, self-promotional, misleading, incoherent or off-topic comments will be rejected. Moderators are staffed during regular business hours (EST) and can only accept comments written in English. Statistics or facts must include a citation or a link to the citation.