Eli and Edythe Broad Invest Another $100M in Broad Institute

By Bio-IT World Staff  

 

November 14, 2013 | American philanthropists and entrepreneurs Eli and Edythe Broad are investing an additional $100 million into the Broad Institute to launch a new decade of transformative work to harness recent biomedical discoveries to benefit patients. 

 

“When we made our first investment to create the Broad Institute, we shared Eric Lander’s vision that discoveries in biomedical research held the key to beating devastating disease and improving people’s lives,” said Eli Broad, founder of The Broad Foundations, in a statement. “As the Broad Institute nears its tenth anniversary, it has already made transformative discoveries, building on the successes of the Human Genome Project. Our latest investment is intended to catalyze the next decade of innovation and discovery. Our goal is to enable the Broad Institute community to continue to take bold risks, bring together the brightest minds in the field, and pursue game-changing breakthroughs that are needed to make a difference in science and medicine.”

 

The Broad Institute was founded in 2003, and the Broads have given the institute to $700 million. The institute brings together scientists from across the MIT and Harvard communities, including the Harvard-affiliated teaching hospitals, and from diverse disciplines including biology, medicine, chemistry, and computer science. 

 

“There is no place like the Broad Institute,” said Broad. “The legacy of collaboration across disciplines coupled with transformative talent, technology, and resources will endure far beyond the next decade. Edye and I can’t wait to see what they will tackle next.”

 

Over the last decade, Broad researchers have led pioneering work in human biology that forms the cornerstone of its next decade of research. This includes the development and application of state-of-the-art genomic methods that have propelled the discovery of hundreds of genes at play in major human diseases, including common diseases like type 2 diabetes and early-onset heart disease; psychiatric diseases such as autism and schizophrenia; autoimmune diseases such as inflammatory bowel disease and rheumatoid arthritis; infectious diseases such as malaria and tuberculosis; dozens of cancers; and many others.

 

“Eli and Edye recognized before many others did the power of genomic information to revolutionize our understanding of human biology and disease,” said Eric Lander, founding director of the Broad Institute. “Their foresight and generosity launched the institute. Their new gift will help us to use our discoveries to transform how we attack devastating disease and improve patients’ lives.”

 

In the next decade, Broad researchers will apply this knowledge to develop therapeutic roadmaps for a variety of human diseases, enabling a new world of more precise and effective treatment options for patients.

 

“I’m profoundly grateful to Eli and Edye for their partnership and support,” said Lander. “Their extraordinary philanthropy is enabling innovation in science and medicine that will directly impact human health for generations to come.”