Timeline to the IMM

1989

James T. Willerson, M.D., joins The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston and announces his vision to develop an Institute of Molecular Medicine for the Prevention of Human Diseases (IMM) in Houston’s Texas Medical Center. Fundraising initiatives begin.

1993

(April) M. David Low, M.D., Ph.D., president of the UT Health Science Center at Houston formally announces the health science center’s plan to establish an institute that will target specifically the prediction and prevention of human diseases – the Institute of Molecular Medicine for the Prevention of Human Diseases. He announces the first receipt of gifts totaling $7.2 million to enhance molecular research. A $40 million fundraising campaign is announced that will later be expanded to the $200 million New Frontiers Campaign to house and support the new institute.

1995

Hans Müller-Eberhard, M.D., Ph.D, wellknown for his pioneering work elucidating the complement system, is recruited by Willerson as the first scientific director of the new IMM. His wife, Irma Gigli, M.D., is simultaneously recruited to lead the IMM’s Center for Immunology and Autoimmune Diseases.

1995

(March 1) Gigli, temporarily housed in the UT Dental Branch at Houston Building, becomes the IMM’s first faculty member. Plans to house the IMM in the renovated UT Speech and Hearing Building are revised as space is leased and readied in the Albert Alkek Building of the Texas A&M University Institute of Biosciences and Technology.

1995

(July) Müller-Eberhard arrives in Houston. Prior to his appointment he was director of the Bernhard Hocht Institute for Tropical Medicine in Hamburg, Germany. He begins developing research programs in immunology, infectious diseases, cardiovascular diseases, neurobiology and cancer research at the genetic level. Recruitment of scientists in these specialties begins.

1996

IMM occupies its first space in the Albert Alkek Building of the Texas A&M Institute of Biosciences and Technology.

1998

(March 3) Müller-Eberhard dies at the UT M. D. Anderson Cancer Center.

1999

(Jan.) Nobel Laureate Ferid Murad, M.D., Ph.D., is named director of the IMM by Low. Murad continues to direct the institute’s Research Center for Cellular Signaling. Gigli is named associate director of the IMM in addition to her directorship of the Research Center for Immunology and Autoimmune Diseases.

2001

(Feb.) Sequencing of the human genome is completed, a milestone in the history of medicine. Science and Nature publish simultaneously and respectively the reports of Craig Venter, Ph.D., of
Celera Genomics and Francis Collins, M.D., Ph.D., representing the publicly funded consortium of laboratories. Noted the editors of Science, “With the completion of the human genome sequence, we
have received a powerful tool for unlocking the secrets of our genetic heritage and for finding our place among the other participants in the adventure of life.”

2001

(March) Willerson is appointed the fourth president of the UT Health Science Center at Houston by the UT Board of Regents.

2003

(Feb.) The University of Texas System Board of Regents approves plans to move forward with architectural plans and design for a new IMM building. Designed by the Missouri firm of Berkebile Immenschuh Nelson McDowell Architects and Burt Hill Kosar Rittelmann Associates from Pennsylvania, the seven-story building is planned to be adjacent to University Center Tower. The building will have two wings, a 200-seat auditorium and a large atrium for public events.

2003

(Sept.) Groundbreaking for the IMM’s new building.

2004

(Jan.) The Brown Foundation Institute of Molecular Medicine for the Prevention of Human Diseases becomes the official name of the institute in recognition of a $20 million gift by The Brown Foundation Inc.

2005

(Feb.) The UT Board of Regents approves renaming the new building the Fayez S. Sarofim Research Building in recognition of the largest gift ever received by the UT Health Science Center at Houston - $25 million to advance stem cell research.

2006

(Feb.) C. Thomas Caskey, M.D., named chief operating officer, director- and chief executive officer-
elect of the IMM, joining the leadership team of Murad and Gigli.

2006

(Jan. 11) Willerson announces to the Development Board of the UT Health Science Center at Houston the successful completion of the New Frontiers campaign, reaching and surpassing the campaign’s $200 million goals. Campaign co-chairs Beth Robertson and the late Ben Love are recognized for their leadership in fundraising.

2006

(May 16) Ribbon Cutting Ceremonies marking completion of the new Fayez S. Sarofim Research Building. Faculty and staff move into new facilities beginning May 19.

2006

(Nov.1) Formal dedication of the new Fayez S. Sarofim Research Building.