[MarkDaMan]

Knight gift of $125 million launches lofty heart-health goals for Oregon Health & Science University
Published: Monday, September 17, 2012, 6:56 PM Updated: Monday, September 17, 2012, 9:20 PM
By Nick Budnick, The Oregonian

http://www.oregonlive.com/health/ind...hes_lofty.html

The biggest-ever gift to Oregon Health & Science University could launch the university into the country's top tier of cardiovascular research centers.

A $125 million gift from Nike co-founder Phil Knight and his wife, Penny, announced Monday creates an entity so new it doesn't have an address yet. The OHSU Cardiovascular Institute is not a building, but a plan to bring together surgeons, scientists and industry to break new ground in cardiovascular health.

Much like the Knight donation to OHSU did for cancer research four year ago, leaders hope the money will lead to revolutionary molecular-level advances in protecting against strokes, clogged arteries and high blood pressure.

The mortality rate for cardiovascular disease has dropped 50 percent in the last 50 years, but "we have another 50 percent to go," said Dr. Albert Starr, co-director of the new venture.

The gift is the largest in OHSU's history, said university president Joe Robertson. Though details are still to be worked out, the $125 million will be used to lure big-name scientific talent, increase the number of clinical trials of new pharmaceuticals and devices, and lure additional corporate and government funding needed to push scientific discoveries from the laboratory into real-world uses.

"There is a huge gap" between basic science and clinical medicine at OHSU, "and we want to bridge that gap," Starr said after the announcement.

Starr, a prominent heart surgeon who pioneered the first mechanical heart valve in 1969, spent the past year strategizing for the new institute with Dr. Sanjiv Kaul, head of OHSU's division of cardiovascular medicine. While he's known for his work in medical devices, Starr said the new institute will give molecular biology equal status in advancing cardiovascular health.

Kaul, who will co-direct the institute, cited an effort to curb the rate and size of strokes that has been headed by neuroimmunologist Mary Stenzel-Poore, OHSU's associate dean for research. The idea is to perfect a medicine for patients before they undergo surgeries with a high risk of stroke, such as heart bypass. The approach has undergone some animal tests, but the new funding could purchase imaging equipment to improve testing, and eventually bring a new medicine to clinical trials on patients, Kaul said.

The money will also fund research into the role the immune system and inflammation play in the hardening of arteries and high blood pressure, as well as how a type of molecule produced by the brain can be used to better protect the heart.

In 2008 the Knights $100 million helped turn what was then the OHSU Cancer Center – racked then with management problems and loss of scientific talent – into a growing research powerhouse, the OHSU Knight Cancer Institute.

Cancer researcher Brian Druker, who is now director of the Knight Cancer Institute, said Knight consulted him on OHSU's proposal for the gift before approving it. He said the institute will likely boost work on cancer as well, since the two will use similar approaches in developing new treatments.

Money, he said, "doesn't cure disease, people do but when you put the best people together and give what they need to succeed against the biggest challenges, anything is possible."

In announcing the gift, OHSU made no secret of its desire to play in the major leagues of cardiovascular research with the likes of the Mayo Clinic and Duke University.

"We would like to be one of the top five institutions in the country," Starr said.

-- Nick Budnick