Hawley Hilton McAuliffe. Photo: Courtesy of the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation
Neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and multiple sclerosis, affect millions of people worldwide, and the UCLA Department of Neurology is committed to finding ways to prevent and treat these conditions more effectively. To support clinical and basic medical-research efforts, the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation contributed $2 million to establish the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation Research Support Fund in the Department of Neurology in the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. The new fund will operate under the guidance of Dr. Rhonda R. Voskuhl, director of the UCLA Multiple Sclerosis Program, professor in the Department of Neurology and Jack H. Skirball Chair for Multiple Sclerosis Research.
“This fund honors the commitment my father Barron Hilton made to ongoing research after seeing my mother Marilyn live with multiple sclerosis for many years,” said Hawley Hilton McAuliffe, board chair of the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation. “We hope for a time when no other family will have to watch their loved ones live with the same disease, and we are honored to support the important work Dr. Voskuhl and her team at UCLA are performing in search of a cure.”
The new research fund will advance the discovery of treatments tailored and optimized to prevent and repair each patient’s neurodegenerative disability, as opposed to a “one-size-fits-all” approach to the development of treatments for neurological diseases.
“I am grateful to the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation for its longtime support and generosity, which is vital to advancing novel approaches in clinical and basic medical research in multiple sclerosis and brain aging,” Dr. Voskuhl said.
The Hilton Foundation, founded by the late Conrad N. Hilton, is a longtime benefactor of the university. Its giving has previously benefited the Department of Neurology, the UCLA Division of Infectious Diseases and the UCLA Jonathan and Karin Fielding School of Public Health, among others.
“The Conrad N. Hilton Foundation has been an important partner with UCLA Neurology, and this most recent gift will help accelerate our neurodegenerative disease research,” said Dr. S. Thomas Carmichael (FEL ’01), professor and chair of the UCLA Department of Neurology and Frances Stark Chair in Neurology.
For more information, contact Elizabeth Naito at: 310-206-6749
