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Family’s Gift Establishes
Stem Cell Research
Professorship
Inspiration springs from unexpected places, but for the Jerold B. Katz family, the heart and soul of their desire to do good began with what seemed like an ending.
In July of 1988, Katz’s youngest son, Lenny, lay near dying after a car accident along Memorial Drive. After diligent work by Texas Medical Center doctors and nurses, the 22-year-old man survived the accident but with severe brain damage and limited motor functions.
The Katzes rallied around their son and brother, and in addition to providing the best in daily care for Lenny, they began what now has been a 17-year search to ensure a full recovery for the now 39-year-old.
This search has led to a recent $250,000 gift by the Jerold B. Katz Foundation to establish a distinguished professorship in stem cell research at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston. The professorship at the Brown Foundation Institute of Molecular Medicine for Prevention of Human Diseases (IMM) will be named in honor of Jerold B. Katz.
Evan Katz, who leads the family foundation, said the family’s decision was simple because “stem cell science is one of the most important areas in medical research today.
“Lenny is not on any life-sustaining machines, just a feeding tube,” he said. “We have tried so many different kinds of cognitive therapy for him and nothing has worked. Our commitment is to helping Lenny. Stem cell science has tremendous potential, and we are confident that new answers are out there.”
This endowment is the second for the Katz Foundation, which established a distinguished professorship in 2004 at the UT School of Nursing at Houston.
“We are deeply grateful to the Katz family for their generosity to the health science center,” said James T. Willerson, M.D., president of the UT Health Science Center. “Jerold is a long-time friend and supporter, and Evan has shown his commitment in many ways, including service on our Development Board. We hope that this most recent gift from the Katzes will someday help find cures for Lenny and others in his situation.”
The Katz family is similar to many private donors who understand that currently stem cell science is controversial but integral to finding new cures. Experts agree that practical uses deriving from stem cell research still is years, possibly decades, away.
“We aren’t doctors or medical people, but our family has been in hospitals for longer than any of us would like to even think about,” Evan Katz said. “It just heartens us to know that our gift is helping to create this most unique research institute right here at the Texas Medical Center.”
The goal of the $200 million New Frontiers Campaign, chaired by Beth Robertson and co-chaired by Ben Love, is to build and equip a new home for the IMM and to recruit and support additional top scientists in the search for the fundamental mechanisms behind common human diseases.
Scientists believe stem cells have the potential to become almost any type of cell. Researchers are working to coax such cells into nerve, heart and pancreatic tissue, potentially to treat spinal cord injuries, heart attacks and diabetes, among many other diseases.
Katz said it is critical for private donors to continue to invest in stem cell research in the coming years. “I’m optimistic that I will live to see a day when a scientist finds a stem cell cure for someone,” he said. “Would we like that person to be my brother? Sure. But just finding cures to those once incurable diseases is enough for us.”