Fund-Raising for UCSF Tops $1 Billion

Contributions to the Campaign for UCSF, a seven-year effort to raise $1.4 billion for UCSF, have topped the $1 billion mark -- the first time a graduate institution in the US has raised so much in a single campaign. "The fact that we were able to reach this milestone in spite of the current uncertainty regarding the economy amounts to a resounding vote of confidence in UCSF and a demonstration of widespread belief in the importance of its mission as a world leader in biomedical research, clinical treatment, and health-care education," said Andrew S. Grove, chairman of Intel Corporation and national chair of the Campaign for UCSF. The campaign hopes to raise the entire $1.4 billion by June 30, 2005. The campaign's success will reverberate far beyond Northern California. The largest university fund-raising effort to focus solely on improving human health, the campaign supports an institution with an unrivalled history of scientific innovation. Among their many contributions over the decades, UCSF researchers have discovered vitamin E, established the nation's first cancer research institute and first AIDS care unit, performed the first successful fetal surgery, revealed cancer-causing genes, devised a vaccine for hepatitis B, and identified a mysterious new class of deadly pathogens called prions. The university has been home to three Nobel laureates, among them Chancellor Mike Bishop, MD, and it is the fourth-largest recipient of research funds from the US National Institutes of Health, (NIH). The School of Dentistry and School of Pharmacy rank first among peer institutions; the School of Medicine ranks third. The School of Nursing ranked first in total NIH awards to nursing and second in NIH dollar awards. Consider UCSF's track record: • UCSF scientists virtually launched the biotech industry with the invention of recombinant DNA techniques now used to create human insulin and other life-saving drugs. • UCSF holds more US patents than any other in the University of California system. • Its discoveries have seeded nearly 70 biotechnology companies working to improve health while also fueling the economy. But innovation on this scale requires resources. Though UCSF scientists are working toward advances in biomedical sciences, several factors hamper their progress, including state budget cutbacks, aging buildings, and difficult health-care economics. The campaign's $1 billion achievement will help UCSF scientists overcome these barriers, greatly expanding the potential for medical breakthroughs. "This institution has been opportunistic in the very best, most socially beneficial sense of the word," said Bishop. "It is one of a handful of players to have shaped modern biomedicine. It achieved this by going far beyond the ordinary, by taking risks. Now UCSF is poised to take another step forward." Evidence of the campaign's success already is apparent in San Francisco's Mission Bay neighborhood, where UCSF is building a cutting-edge biomedical research and teaching campus on 43 acres of former industrial land. The first phase of the campus, supported in part by the campaign, will include new research buildings, a campus community center, housing, shops, and Koret Quad, a publicly accessible landscaped park larger than the city's Union Square. University scientists began moving into the first research facility, UCSF Genentech Hall this month. UCSF scientists are moving into the state-of-the-art laboratories and will use them to seek a cure for malaria and develop better treatments for HIV/AIDS. With the campaign's support, construction already has begun at Mission Bay on two new buildings to house researchers working in developmental biology, human genetics and bioengineering. Along with Grove, Campaign for UCSF volunteers include co-chair Barbara Bass Bakar, former CEO of Emporium/Weinstocks and current chair of the UCSF Foundation; Brook H. Byers, partner, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers; Arthur H. Kern, investor and civic volunteer; and William E. Oberndorf, managing director, SPO Partners & Co. and vice chair of the UCSF Foundation. The Campaign's Chair Emeritus is A.W. Clausen, retired chairman and CEO of Bank of America. Source: Mike Mason