A Medical Device Daily

NYU Langone Medical Center (New York) reported a $100 million gift from the Druckenmiller Foundation (New York) to establish a neuroscience institute at the Medical Center.

This gift will provide for the recruitment and support of the highest caliber neuroscientists, reinforcing NYU Langone Medical Center's existing strengths and enabling it to become a leader in translational neuroscience, bringing expertise from the research bench to the clinical bedside. It will also help promote the education and training of future generations of neuroscientists — a hallmark of the institution — as well as support a dedicated neuroscience facility.

This gift is the latest milestone in a multi-year transformation of the Medical Center.

NYU Langone Medical Center reported four historic 9-figure gifts in a 15-month period and said it believes it is the only nonprofit organization in the U.S. to have done so. In 2008, the Medical Center raised $506 million —believed to be the largest amount raised by any academic medical center in a 12-month-period — and has raised nearly $700 million in less than two years.

In other grant news, Marion Sandler, chairman of the American Asthma Foundation (AAF; San Francisco), named twelve distinguished scientists, chosen from a pool of 327 applicants, to receive a total of $8 million in research grants. These awards are given to outstanding scientists to investigate cutting-edge approaches to improving treatments, prevention and, eventually, curing asthma. In announcing these awards, Sandler stated, "These grants reflect the AAF's emphasis on innovation as the major weapon in the fight against asthma, a disease that affects one in every 13 Americans."

The $8 million will be allocated among awardees who will each receive up to $750,000 over a three-year period. This year's winners join the past 110 grant recipients researching potentially groundbreaking approaches to address the asthma epidemic. As in previous years, awardees come from outstanding academic institutions in the U.S. and foreign countries and include a range of scientific disciplines, such as biology, aerospace engineering, immunology, and imaging.