$400m gift makes center on genomics permanent
A record-setting $400 million gift announced yesterday will provide financial permanence for the Broad Institute, a Cambridge genomics research center that in just four years has become a worldwide leader in the effort to unravel the genetic basis of diseases.
The contribution from Los Angeles philanthropists Eli and Edythe Broad will create an endowment to transform their namesake institution from a 10-year experiment, as it was conceived when founded in 2004 with an earlier $100 million gift from the Broads, into a permanent entity.
Scores of researchers and staff members greeted the announcement in the Kendall Square institute's lobby with prolonged ap plause, standing ovations, and a large-screen video in which they told the Broads: "Thank you. Thank you. Thank you."
The Broad Institute "in a very short time has become, I really believe, number one in the world of genomics," billionaire Eli Broad said in a phone interview earlier this week. "It's the biggest investment we've ever made, and we think the returns are just great from what we've seen so far."
The institute has helped cast light on the genetic underpinnings of diseases ranging from cancer to malaria; sequenced the genomes of more than 20 mammals, from dogs to horses; and helped create many of the tools for the exploding field of analyzing masses of gene data for clues about disease and life itself.
The Broad is far from alone in the firmament of genomics research; there are several major centers around the country and world, in such locations as Seattle, Houston, St. Louis, England, and Iceland.
But since its inception, it has been "a leading partner in this whole landscape of developing genomic resources that we really do think has already revolutionized our understanding of biology," said Dr. Alan Guttmacher, acting director of the National Human Genome Research Institute.
Broad Institute researchers have "worked very well with others, which is very important," he said, and the institute has also been a strong advocate of the idea of free and open access to research results. "The Broad has been a real proponent of that view, and lived up to it," said Guttmacher, whose federal agency helps fund much of the Broad's research.
The institute came into being following the federal Human Genome Project, which mapped out the full complement of human genes. A joint project of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University, including the Harvard-affiliated hospitals, the institute aimed to bring together scientists across institutions and disciplines to use genomics to understand and attack disease.
The institute began as "an experiment in scientific organization," said Eric Lander, its director. The Broads' new gift after just four years is "an early declaration of success," he said.
It is also, he said, "a tribute to Boston" as a scientific center. The Broads are deeply committed to the civic life of Los Angeles and had tried early on to lure Lander to California to create a genomics institute. He convinced them, however, that the intellectual resources of universities and hospitals in the Boston area made it the right place.
Broad, who founded two Fortune 500 companies, SunAmerica Inc. and KB Home, said he is also funding stem cell research in California, but he is convinced that genomics will ultimately prove more important to biomedical research.
Huge as the new gift is, it is only a beginning, Broad and Lander said. The endowment's proceeds will cover only about $20 million of the institute's annual budget of about $150 million a year. Most of the rest comes from federal grants, including a just-announced $86 million grant to screen chemical compounds known as "small molecules" for possible health benefits.
Broad called for other donors to help support the institute, and said he expected the endowment to reach $1 billion in coming years.
Among his metrics for success: Broad Institute researchers have published some 350 scientific papers in the last four years and won an average of 40 percent of the federal grants they applied for, an unusually successful record.
About 1,200 researchers and staff are affiliated with the Broad. Among their work:
Thus far, work at the Broad Institute has not led to any new treatments for disease, but Lander said that the center's research had spawned more than a dozen clinical trials and that four years is far too short in the world of medical research to expect new therapies to be created from scratch.
"The real implications for human health will be felt in the 15- to 20-year time frame," he said. "There's no accelerating that."
One lexical measure of the Broad Institute's impact is the entry of the word Broad - which rhymes with road - into the local scientific parlance. Harvard president Drew Gilpin Faust said at the ceremony yesterday that she had repeatedly heard colleagues discussing a project say, "We need to make this more Broad-like."
"Broadie" is the new noun; Governor Deval Patrick began his remarks, "In spirit, I, too, am a Broadie."
According to the Chronicle of Higher Education, which tracks such gifts, the Broads' donation surpasses any other to an American academic institution for biomedical research, though National Taiwan University received $454.5 million last year for cancer research and care.
After their founding gift of $100 million, the Broads quickly made a second contribution of $100 million just a year or so later. The new $400 million will be integrated into the same financial structure as these earlier gifts, Lander said, so he considers it a total gift of $600 million. Gordon and Betty Moore gave $600 million to the California Institute of Technology in 2001, but it did not target biomedical research.
The Broads are making a $600 million bet, Eli Broad told the gathered researchers and staff yesterday, "that the Broad Institute will be the place where the greatest scientific discoveries take place."
Carey Goldberg can be reached at goldberg@globe.com. 