UT Adds Brown Foundation Name to IMM

Naming recognizes largest single philanthropic gift in UT Health Science Center’s history

In recognition of the largest single philanthropic gift in the history of The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, the university will add the name of The Brown Foundation Inc. to one of the university’s most dynamic research institutes. With the recent approval of the UT System Board of Regents, Houston will be home to The Brown Foundation Institute of Molecular Medicine for the Prevention of Human Diseases.

“The Brown Foundation has been serving our community for more than 50 years, with a sharp focus on education and service,” said James T. Willerson, M.D., president of the UT Health Science Center. “It is fitting that the Brown Foundation name will grace the building in which we will accelerate our activities in molecular and proteomic research, thanks to the foundation’s generous support.”

In February 2002 the Brown Foundation made a five-year, $20 million grant to the New Frontiers Campaign, which is seeking to raise $200 million to build and equip a new facility for research on the molecular and genetic basis of disease, and to recruit and support additional world-class scientists.

On Sept. 23, leaders and friends of the UT Health Science Center broke ground for the new, $120 million building on Pressler Street adjacent to University Center Tower.

New Frontiers Campaign Chair Beth Robertson said the Brown Foundation gift made an exciting start to the fundraising effort. “We were incredibly privileged to have the Brown Foundation’s lead support,” she said. “With their amazing contribution, the UT Health Science Center gained a powerful partner in the fight against disease, and now the IMM gains a new name.”

The Brown Foundation, established in 1951 by Houston civic leaders Herman and Margarett Root Brown and George R. and Alice Pratt Brown, has been a supporter of the health science center since the early 1970s. Over the years, the foundation has helped establish such programs as the innovative TexGen research collaboration and student scholarships for the UT School of Nursing. The Brown Foundation also made a generous lead contribution to help create the IMM in the early 1990s.

Directed by Nobel laureate Ferid Murad, M.D., Ph.D., the Brown Foundation Institute of Molecular Medicine for the Prevention of Human Diseases (IMM) currently is housed in temporary space in the Texas A&M University System building at 2121 W. Holcombe Blvd.

Created in 1995, the institute includes five disease targeted research facilities: human genetics, cardiovascular diseases, protein chemistry, cell signaling, and immunology and autoimmune diseases. Work conducted in these centers uses DNA and protein technologies to reveal disease mechanisms. The IMM’s new building, on which Vaughn Construction is the general contractor, is scheduled to open in 2005.

The most ambitious capital campaign ever undertaken by the UT Health Science Center now totals $143 million. The campaign is led by Houston community leaders and UT development board members Robertson, chair, and Ben Love, co-chair.

— by David Bates, Public Affairs