Mount Sinai Medical Center to Start Personalized Medicine Institute with $12.5M Philanthropic Gift
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The Andrea and Charles Bronfman Philanthropies (ACBP) have given $12.5 million to establish the Charles Bronfman Institute for Personalized Medicine at The Mount Sinai Medical Center.
The Leadership Gift will help propel Mount Sinai to the forefront of personalized medicine, an emerging field that uses information about a person’s genetic make-up to customize strategies for the detection, treatment, and prevention of disease. At the highest level, Mr. Bronfman’s grant underscores the vital role philanthropy will play in advancing next-generation medical practice.
“Personalized medicine could be the most important scientific development of the 21st century,” said Charles Bronfman, Chairman of the Andrea and Charles Bronfman Philanthropies.
“In an industry like medicine, where market forces are slow to change, philanthropy must play the role of catalyst – facilitating growth, inspiring awareness, and serving as a basis for change. The Mount Sinai Medical Center has been a pacesetter in the area of personalized medicine and is a clear choice for receiving this grant,” Bronfman continued.
“The Mount Sinai Medical Center is poised to lead the most important medical revolution taking place today, and one that will have the biggest impact on the direction and growth of bioscience for the next few decades,” said Kenneth L. Davis, M.D., President and CEO of the Medical Center. “Mr. Bronfman's generosity and vision will enable Mount Sinai to be at the forefront of this emerging field and bring each new achievement immediately to the aid of our patients.”
The $12.5 million ACBP gift will be used to fund an institution-wide Biobank at Mount Sinai and to establish the Translational Biomedical Informatics Center, two areas of focus for the Institute for Personalized Medicine, seed-funding Mount Sinai's overall $30 million personalized medicine initiative. The grant will be paid out over a period of 10 years.
“Since its inception, the Andrea and Charles Bronfman Philanthropies have emphasized innovation and new business models as a core component in its grant making decisions,” said Dr. Jeffrey Solomon, President of the Andrea and Charles Bronfman Philanthropies.
“Personalized medicine is something that will fundamentally alter the medical industry and will forever redefine the role of ubiquitous players such as insurance and pharmaceutical companies. We believe that our investment in personalized medicine and in The Mount Sinai Medical Center, will have exponentially greater social benefit in the coming decades,” Solomon said.
"The Charles Bronfman Institute for Personalized Medicine at Mount Sinai will be a breakthrough in this increasingly exciting field," said Erwin Bottinger, M.D., Director of the Institute, Professor of Medicine and Pharmacology and of Biological Chemistry, and Vice Chair for Research in the Department of Medicine.
"The uniquely seamless relationship between our hospital and our medical school has Mount Sinai poised to lead research efforts as personalized medicine continues to develop and to immediately translate our advances to benefit our patients on a clinical level,” he continued.
Mr. Bronfman has served on the Mount Sinai Boards of Trustees since 2002. Along with his late wife, Andrea Morrison Bronfman, he has supported the Emergency Room Renovation Project, the Stephen M. Peck Jewish Chapel, the President's Fund, and the Crystal Ball.
