Announcing a Transformational Gift for the California Institute for Immunology and Immunotherapy

Campus UpdateFinancial Stability

Interim Chancellor Hunt shared this message to the Bruin Community.

Dear Bruin Community:

With both gratitude and excitement, we write to announce a transformational $120 million gift commitment from inventor, surgeon and philanthropist Gary Michelson and his wife Alya to help kick-start the California Institute for Immunology and Immunotherapy, which will be housed at the recently announced UCLA Research Park.

The gift, among the largest in UCLA’s history, designates $100 million to be shared equally between two of the institute’s entities – one focused on rapid vaccine development and the other on microbiome research in collaboration with the UCLA Goodman-Luskin Microbiome Center. An additional $20 million will be used to create an endowment supporting young scientists who are using novel processes to advance immunotherapy research, human immunology and vaccine discovery.

We are extremely thankful for the generosity and vision of Dr. and Mrs. Michelson, who believe deeply in UCLA’s mission and whose gift seeks to leverage UCLA’s strengths. With their remarkable gift, the Michelsons have made an unmistakable vote of confidence in UCLA’s ability to develop new therapies to fight cancer, neurological, cardiovascular, autoimmune and other diseases — and ultimately to advance human health for all.

A unique public-private partnership, the California Institute for Immunology and Immunotherapy promises to power discovery, opportunity and economic growth as an anchor tenant of our UCLA Research Park. The institute is designed to be an agile, interdisciplinary, collaborative ecosystem of networked laboratories. It will allow UCLA to use its research prowess to advance the common good and drive significant economic change in the region, while also helping us deepen our ties to Los Angeles.

The California Institute for Immunology and Immunotherapy has been generously supported by Dr. Michelson as well as other founding donors from the academic, entrepreneurship and philanthropic communities including Meyer Luskin, Dr. Eric Esrailian, Dr. Arie Belldegrun, Sean Parker and Michael Milken. In addition, the state of California allocated $200 million toward UCLA’s acquisition of the renovated Westside Pavilion mall, which will soon become the home of our research park.

In making today’s announcement, we also wish to recognize the leadership and contributions of former UCLA Chancellor Gene Block, who has been an ardent champion of the California Institute for Immunology and Immunotherapy, who spearheaded the acquisition of the Westside Pavilion property, and who helped shepherd this gift.

The Michelsons’ wonderful generosity will have an impact that will extend decades into the future and will change countless lives here and across the globe. We encourage you to read more about this gift on UCLA Newsroom, and offer our deepest thanks to these two very dear friends of UCLA.

Sincerely,