Sep 12, 2007 1:49 PM

Broads' $20-M gift will help quicken pace of stem cell research at UCLA

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa joined UCLA's leadership and several of its top medical researchers on campus Sept. 10 to commend the generosity of the Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation in giving $20 million to fund adult and embryonic stem cell research at UCLA.

In recognition of the gift, Chancellor Gene Block officially dedicated the Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Medicine as the Eli and Edythe Broad Center of Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research at UCLA. Also participating were Chancellor Emeritus Norman Abrams, the Broads, center director Owen Witte and several faculty, staff and supporters.

"We are here today to recognize two people who believe in dreams, and through their abundant generosity are determined to make dreams come true," Block said. "Edie and Eli Broad have done so much for so many. UCLA has had the enormous good fortune to be among their foremost beneficiaries, and for that we are deeply grateful."

"It's nothing new to me and, I think, to most of us, because the Broads are very generous people," said Schwarzenegger, who called California the mecca of stem cell research. "This city couldn't really survive without their generosity, not only when it comes to stem cell research, but also generally in science, in education and the arts...They are truly a very, very special couple."

The announcement of the gift puts Los Angeles on the cutting edge of stem cell research and at the forefront of developing lifesaving cures, according to Villaraigosa. "The new Eli and Edythe Broad Center of Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research is well on its way to becoming the best-equipped stem cell research center in California — which means in the United States," he said.

The $20-million gift will be used to purchase specialized, high-tech laboratory equipment and will support faculty recruitment through research grants and endowed professorships. Since its launch in 2005, the center has recruited some of the country's top scientists in the field — from renowned institutions such as Harvard, MIT and Johns Hopkins — to fill six of the 12 new faculty positions.

Administrative offices and some of the state-of-the-art laboratories for the Broad center will be housed in the new Biomedical Sciences Research Building, a 133,000-square-foot facility designed with an open floor plan to facilitate collaborative research. Researchers from various parts of campus will join forces to develop new and more effective treatments for cancer, HIV/AIDS, Parkinson's, metabolic disorders and other conditions.

While he is pleased with the center's progress, said Witte, a UCLA professor of microbiology, immunology and molecular genetics and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator, he wants to do more. "We want to accelerate the pace and make things happen more quickly, so this gift will be used to expedite our research mission in many ways," he said. "It will enable us to rapidly provide crucial equipment, cutting-edge technology that's needed in this research, and it supports the hiring of additional faculty members. And most importantly ... it will support the most innovative approaches to developing new kinds of therapies."

Eli Broad admitted that he and his wife are not authorities in the area of scientific and medical research. "We rely on experts," he said. "We were most impressed with Dr. Witte's scientific knowledge, his passion for research and his leadership ability to bring the best and brightest scientists to UCLA."

In the last five years, the philanthropist added, the Broad foundations have given $265 million to scientific and medical research. "Let me rephrase that: We've invested $265 million in genomics and stem cell research because we believe that our investment is going to yield great results," he said. "The most valuable return possible is the improvement of the human condition."

Following a press conference, Broad, Schwarzenegger and Villaraigosa joined other visitors on a tour of Assistant Professor Hanna Mikkola's lab on the fourth floor of the Biomedical Sciences Research Building, where she and members of her team demonstrated how to analyze and identify blood stem cells using leading-edge flow cytometry.

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