NEW YORK, Jan. 20, 2016 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The New York Genome Center (NYGC) today announced a combined $100 million gift from the Simons Foundation and from The Carson Family Charitable Trust. The Simons Foundation is chaired by James Simons, who also serves as an NYGC board director. The Carson Family Charitable Trust is led by NYGC board co-chairman Russell Carson.
The grant will comprise an $80 million contribution from the Simons Foundation and $20 million from The Carson Family Charitable Trust. The gift is offered as a challenge grant to the Genome Center from the foundations of the two directors. They will match every dollar that NYGC raises over the course of the next three years, up to $100 million.
Funds from the grant will be used to drive NYGC's mission, including:
NYGC Founding Director and CEO, Robert B. Darnell, MD, PhD, said, "We are enormously grateful to Russ and Jim for their ongoing dedication to the New York Genome Center, including this remarkable gift. It's an incredible vote of confidence in NYGCs efforts to foster a thriving clinically-focused genomics community in New York. This kind of support will enable discoveries in a broad range of diseases, including cancer, neuropsychiatric and inflammatory diseases, that can help patients today."
Mr. Carson and Dr. Simons helped establish the New York Genome Center, the unique consortium of medical schools, hospitals, research institutions and industry partners dedicated to genomics research. Mr. Carson has served as the co-chairman of the board of the Genome Center since its creation. Both men have been instrumental leaders of the organization and have helped guide its substantial growth from its initial concept in 2011 to its current leadership position in the evolving field of genomics.
With this gift, the Simons Foundation's philanthropic support of the Genome Center will exceed $100 million. The Simons Foundation was the largest donor to the Center prior to this gift, and Dr. Simons has been an ardent proponent of the innovative work of NYGC and its focus on clinically actionable genomics.
"By matching all philanthropic donations to the New York Genome Center over the next three years, we hope to inspire those who have already been generous and also attract new donors," Mr. Carson said. "I am confident that investing in genomics research is to the benefit of the community overall, and particularly to those suffering from some of our most challenging diseases. It's a privilege for me to support this critical work."
Over the course of the past year, NYGC has expanded its research in a number of areas, including glioblastoma, pediatric cancers, rheumatoid arthritis, Lou Gehrig's disease and autism, through more than 700 collaborative projects with New York's venerable academic medical centers, many of whom are founding institutions of NYGC, as well as medical schools and hospitals across the country and around the world.
Last week NYGC received a $40 million grant from the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI), a division of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), to create a Center for Common Disease Genomics through which it will work to develop a comprehensive list of genes underlying common diseases such as autism, autoimmune and neuropsychiatric disorders.
Among its notable achievements, scientists at NYGC are pioneering the development of faster and cost effective methods for a variety of sequencing strategies ranging from sequencing whole cancer genomes to single stem cells, which will lead to more sophisticated disease diagnosis and therapeutics.
About the New York Genome Center
The New York Genome Center (NYGC) is an independent, nonprofit at the forefront of transforming biomedical research and clinical care with the mission of saving lives. As a consortium of renowned academic, medical and industry leaders across the globe, NYGC focuses on translating genomic research into clinical solutions for serious disease. Our member organizations and partners are united in this unprecedented collaboration of technology, science, and medicine. We harness the power of innovation and discoveries to improve people's lives — ethically, equitably, and urgently. Member institutions include: Albert Einstein College of Medicine, American Museum of Natural History, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Columbia University, Cornell University/Weill Cornell Medicine, Hospital for Special Surgery, The Jackson Laboratory, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, The New York Stem Cell Foundation, New York University, Northwell Health (formerly North Shore-LIJ), The Rockefeller University, Roswell Park Cancer Institute, Stony Brook University and IBM.
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SOURCE New York Genome Center
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