$185 Million Gift Will Create Neuroscience Center at UCSF

The philanthropists Sanford and Joan Weill are giving $185 million to create a neuroscience center at the University of California at San Francisco.

The UCSF Weill Institute for Neurosciences will bring together the university’s neuroscientists, neurologists, and neurosurgeons to speed the development of new treatments for diseases that affect the brain and nervous system, including psychiatric disorders.

That last area was one of the aspects of the university’s proposal for the center that appealed to the couple.

“I was very happy to hear neuroscience and psychiatry were being put together,” said Ms. Weill. “It would remove the stigma and make those diseases like any other illness so people could talk more openly about it.”

Personal Motivations

Neuroscience has attracted attention and dollars of some of the country’s richest philanthropists in recent years as researchers get closer to developing treatments that help patients suffering with diseases like Alzheimer’s, multiple sclerosis, and Parkinson’s disease.

For the Weills, though, this gift was personal. Mr. Weill’s mother suffered Alzheimer’s disease for years before she died about 15 years ago, and the experience was heartbreaking.

“She had terrible Alzheimer’s and she didn’t say a word for 15 years,” said Mr. Weill. “We’d show her pictures of family, and she had no facial expression. It wasn’t until she died that I felt like I got her back.”

The couple also believes that until recent years, the neurosciences had been neglected by many philanthropists.

“It was always the poor cousin. A lot of the money was going to cancer or cardiology,” said Ms. Weill.

Her husband said he thinks the coming decade will bring life-changing discoveries of treatments for those diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and ALS, among other diseases, and he and his wife hope they will live long enough to see some of these developments. But they also hope more wealthy philanthropists will see a need to step up giving to the neurosciences.

“We’re not seeing our government increasing research dollars, so there’s a real vacuum. So we hope intelligent philanthropists will invest their money and their interest,” Mr. Weill said.

A smattering of wealthy donors in recent years have done just that.

More Focus on Neuroscience

The Weills’ donation is the 11th multimillion-dollar contribution to neuroscience announced by wealthy donors in the past seven years totaling $975.3 million, according to The Chronicle’s tally.

Their donation is the third largest neuroscience gift announced by a wealthy donor since 2009.

The biggest such gift was the $300 million Paul Allen pledged in 2012 to support his Allen Institute for Brain Science, which he created in 2003. Besides supporting research into brain and nervous-system disorders, the Weills’ gift will back an effort to marry basic research in psychiatry with the neurosciences with the goal of advancing the understanding and treatment of mental illnesses.

The donation will help pay for a building to house the new institute. It will include 45 new basic research labs as well as clinics that will provide care to patients with Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias; amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also known as ALS; Huntington’s disease; movement disorders including Parkinson’s disease and dystonia; sleep disorders; chronic pain and migraines; and paralysis caused by stroke or injury.

Prolific Giving

Mr. and Ms. Weill are lifelong philanthropists. Much of their money has gone toward medical centers and research. They’ve landed on The Chronicle’s annual Philanthropy 50 list of the most generous donors seven times since 2001.

In the past 15 years the billionaire couple has announced at least $655 million in gifts to charity with some of the biggest donations going to Weill Cornell Medical College. To date, the Weills have given the medical college about $450 million.

They have also given significantly to Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, where Ms. Weill served as chairman of the board from 2000 through 2014, and to Carnegie Hall, where Mr. Weill was chairman for 24 years.

Naming Gift Court Battle

The Weills’ giving practices caused controversy last summer when they pledged $20 million to Paul Smith’s College, near New York’s Adirondack Mountains, with the understanding that the institution would be renamed Joan Weill-Paul Smith’s College.

But alumni and others balked at the name change, citing Paul Smith’s stipulation when he founded the institution that it be “forever known” as Paul Smith’s College. The squabble ended in a lawsuit in New York State Court in October when a judge rejected the proposal to rename the college.

The Weills subsequently pulled their pledge. They had given the college $1 million in 2013 for scholarships and $1 million early last year for operations costs.

Large Gifts to Neuroscience Research

Source: Chronicle data