The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) has received a $120 million commitment to support the recently established California Institute for Immunology and Immunotherapy, positioning the university to establish research entities in Los Angeles focused on vaccine development and the microbiome.
The university shared details of the institute in May, when UCLA Health CEO John Mazziotta, M.D., Ph.D., said the goal was to “build the immunology equivalent of Silicon Valley in Los Angeles.” UCLA’s attempt to realize that lofty goal received a boost this week, when Gary Michelson and his wife Alya committed $120 million to the project.
UCLA will spend $50 million on an institute focused on rapid vaccine development and $50 million on an effort to harness the microbiome to improve human health. The university said the other $20 million will support research grants to “young scientists using novel processes to advance immunotherapy research, human immunology and vaccine discovery.”
The money is part of a broader financial package that is facilitating the project. UCLA acquired the land for the institute, which used to be home to a shopping mall, in January after the state of California put in $200 million.
UCLA received the latest $120 million from the Michelson Medical Research Foundation. Gary Michelson made his name as a spine surgeon and medtech inventor, licensing patents to Sofamor Danek, which was later acquired by Medtronic for $3.7 billion, in the 1990s. Medtronic sued Michelson in 2001, only to agree to pay $1.35 billion to take ownership of his patents in 2005.
Michelson joins Arie Belldegrun, M.D., the founder of Kite Pharma, and Napster founder turned philanthropist Sean Parker on the list of people involved with the institute. On the UCLA side, business leader Meyer Luskin and physician Eric Esrailian, M.D., are part of the project.