Two new gifts from the Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation to UCLA totaling $4 million will fund research in stem cell science and digestive diseases and support the recruitment of key faculty at two research centers, it was announced May 8.
The gifts bring to $30 million the Broad Foundation’s total support of faculty recruitment and basic and translational research at the Eli and Edythe Broad Center of Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research at UCLA and at the Center for Inflammatory Bowel Diseases at UCLA’s Division of Digestive Diseases.
A $2 million gift to the Broad Stem Cell Research Center adds to the Broad Foundation’s original 2007 gift of $20 million, which has supported faculty and research and launched the Innovation Award program, which furthers research at the center by giving UCLA stem cell scientists “seed funding” for their projects.
The new gift will enable the continuation of the award program, which has yielded a 10-to-1 return on investment with grantees securing additional funding from other agencies, including the National Institutes of Health and more than $200 million in total grants from the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine, the state’s stem cell agency, the university said.
“The Broads’ generous support has been essential to the development of new therapies that are currently in, or very near, clinical trials for treating blindness, sickle cell disease and cancer,” Broad Stem Cell Research Center Director Dr. Owen Witte said.
The $2 million gift to the Division of Digestive Diseases builds on nearly $6 million in previous commitments from the Broad Foundation since 2003.
