UCSF receives $50 million gift
for new cardiovascular clinic

By Caitlin Cassady, Bay City News Service

March 27, 2007

SAN FRANCISCO (BCN) - More than 20 percent of the cost for University of California, San Francisco's new building for cardiovascular research and clinical treatment has been covered by a $50 million gift from The Atlantic Philanthropies.

The new 232,000 square-foot building, located at the school's Mission Bay Campus, will house both research scientists and clinicians in order to accelerate efforts to understand cardiovascular diseases such as heart attack and stroke, according to Corinna Kaarlela, a spokeswoman for UCSF.

The UCSF Cardiovascular Research Institute will be moved to the new building, to collaborate with a new center for prevention of cardiovascular disease, with an outpatient facility that will focus on advancing ways to predict and prevent heart disease.

"This is an extraordinary opportunity to develop a disease-focused research program and clinical facility literally from the ground up,'' said Shaun Coughlin, director of the research institute, in a prepared statement.

The new building will integrate many different levels of research and promote collaboration between different fields of study. By bringing together scientists and clinicians that are now dispersed amongst different campuses, UCSF hopes to attain a new level of sophistication in thinking about heart disease and "speed the pace of translating the research into new treatments for patients,'' Coughlin said.

The $50 million grant is the largest cash gift the university has ever received, as well as the second major gift that the Mission Bay campus has received from Atlantic Philanthropies, according to Kaarlela. The foundation also contributed $20 million to the Helen Diller Family Cancer Research building that is now under construction.

UCSF has allocated $52 million of its own resources to go toward the new cardiology clinic, and an anonymous donor contributed $30 million.

The university is currently seeking major gifts from other foundations and individuals in order to cover the remainder of the projected $241 million price tag, reported Kaarlela.

Construction of the building is expected to begin in 2008 and be completed in 2011.

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