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Ewing Halsell Foundation Gives a Record $1 Million
to TexGen
Gift boosts UT Health Science Center scientists’ genetics research
into heart disease, stroke and cancer
Genetics researchers at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston stand to benefit from a $1 million gift to TexGen from the Ewing Halsell Foundation. The foundation’s gift is the largest single donation to TexGen since its inception in 2001.
Lorraine Frazier, D.S.N.
Dianna Milewicz, M.D., Ph.D.
TexGen Research, or TexGen for short, is an innovative research collaboration organization founded by UT Health Science Center at Houston President James T. Willerson, M.D., and the leaders of Baylor College of Medicine and the UT M. D. Anderson Cancer Center.
Today, it represents a collaborative effort between these research institutions and the Texas Medical Center (TMC) hospitals and institutions that lead the world in heart, stroke and cancer-related medical procedures – Texas Heart Institute, The Methodist Hospital, St. Luke’s Episcopal Hospital, Memorial Hermann Hospital, Texas Children’s Hospital and M. D. Anderson Cancer Center.
Willerson expressed his appreciation for the gift, “We are extremely grateful for the Ewing Halsell gift to TexGen. This support allows scientists in the Texas Medical Center to continue to obtain blood and DNA samples from very large numbers of patients with heart and vascular diseases and selected cancers for the purpose of identifying genes and proteins that cause these medical problems.
“We expect in the years to come to be able to identify patients at risk years before a serious heart or vascular problem or cancer occurs. Ultimately, it should be possible to largely prevent these medical problems from these discoveries,” he said. “I am also very grateful to Leroy Denman, Ed Austin, and Hugh Fitzsimons, trustees of the Ewing Halsell Foundation, for their confidence and extraordinary support of our research efforts at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston.”
The Ewing Halsell Foundation, based in San Antonio, is a private charitable trust dedicated to improving the quality of life for Texans by providing access to the arts, education and quality health care, and by helping provide opportunities for the economically disadvantaged. The foundation was established in 1957 by rancher Ewing Halsell and his wife, Lucile.
It was Leroy Denman’s great admiration and mutual respect of his long-time friend that compelled him and fellow trustees from the Halsell Foundation to support the project. “Being a leader in patient treatment, Dr. Willerson shows a remarkable sensitivity to patients that I have not seen from any other doctor,” Denman said. “He is a star in the health care field, and we are honored to support his endeavors.”
TexGen Project Director Lorraine Frazier, D.S.N., says the Halsell Foundation gift is a testimony to Willerson’s leadership and vision in the prevention and treatment of cardiovascular disease.
“We’re thrilled about this gift. The money will be put to good use,” Frazier said. “The project is going extremely well. We are proud of both the dedication of the research teams and the commitment of the patients to this effort, and this generous gift makes it possible for us to carry on.”
Through TexGen, blood and tissue samples are collected from patients entering the hospitals for treatment in cardiovascular disease, cancer and stroke. This data is compiled into an anonymous, secure database that provides researchers with the large sample sizes needed for genetic study, analysis and discovery for these diseases. To date, more than 11,000 samples have been collected. The information and biological samples collected will be used as a resource for TMC researchers to produce new therapies and approaches that will lead to the prevention of cardiovascular disease, cancer and stroke.
TexGen provides financial support to build the resource at institutions such as UT Health Science Center by funding the continuation of sample collecting at the hospitals. Specifically, funding provided by TexGen has allowed principal investigator Dianna Milewicz, M.D., Ph.D., and her team of researchers to collect samples from patients entering the hospital for aortic aneurysms, a deadly syndrome in which the walls of the aorta slowly bulge over time. As it grows larger, the aneurysm is prone to split, or dissect, an event that is most often lethal.
Milewicz, who holds the President George Bush Chair in Cardiovascular Medicine, and her team recently mapped to a narrow portion of chromosome 3 a genetic variation that causes the disorder.
“Accessibility to samples is critical in determining markers that identify aortic aneurysms in patients,” said Milewicz, professor and director of the UT Medical School at Houston Division of Medical Genetics and a faculty member in the UT Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences at Houston. “TexGen funds have allowed us to collect samples from these patients and analyze the data rapidly.”
Since TexGen’s inception, more than $4 million has been raised through the generous support of donors in Houston and around the state. The organization is currently involved in a campaign to raise another $3 million to continue to grow the database over the next three years. To date, $1.8 million has been raised toward that effort.
By Jacqueline F. Preston