Gene Block Chancellor | University Of California, Los Angeles
Gene Block Chancellor | University Of California, Los Angeles
UCLA Health has announced a significant donation from the Saul and Joyce Brandman Foundation, amounting to $20 million. This contribution will establish a new lung health center dedicated to exploring lung disease mechanisms and developing prevention strategies, diagnostic tests, and treatments.
The new facility will be named the UCLA Saul and Joyce Brandman Foundation Center for Lung Health. It aims to provide training and mentorship to physicians and scientists, fostering future leaders in medicine committed to combating lung disease.
Dr. Steven Dubinett, dean of the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, stated, “This gift is both transformational and timely, given the effects of the California wildfires on air quality and lung health. This gift will benefit not only our patients but future generations of lung specialists and ultimately people everywhere who suffer from chronic lung disease.”
The funding will create an endowment supporting research, training, professional development, materials, equipment, symposia, therapy development, and other activities under the direction of a center director yet to be named.
Dr. John Belperio expressed gratitude for this support: “I am grateful to Joyce and the Brandman Foundation for their continued support of research that will reshape lung health.”
In addition to establishing three endowed chairs within the division—an administrative chair for the center's director and two term-appointment chairs focused on lung health acceleration and innovation—the donation will also set up two funds. These include a director’s fund for strategic research initiatives and a pulmonary hypertension fund benefiting Dr. Richard Channick's work as holder of the Saul Brandman Chair in Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension.
Joyce Brandman commented on the impact: “This is an especially meaningful gift for our foundation and for the more than 35 million people in the United States who live with chronic lung disease.” She emphasized that improving knowledge about lung health could enhance quality of life.
Joyce Brandman continues her philanthropic efforts through leading roles in various organizations related to healthcare, education, Israel advocacy groups like American Friends Of The Hebrew University or Beit T’Shuvah among others since receiving an honorary doctorate from Hebrew University Jerusalem back in 2015.
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