Greg and Jodi Perlman. Photo: Jessie Cowan The Thalians presented the first payment on its second $1 million pledge to UCLA Operation Mend. Photo: Greg Doherty
In December 2018, the UCLA Division of Geriatrics received a $2 million pledge from siblings Cameron Draine and Janet Odell, honoring the legacy and memory of their parents Patricia and Robert Draine. Their gift establishes the Robert and Patricia Draine Endowed Chair in Geriatrics. The funds will be dedicated to support the director of the UCLA Alzheimer’s and Dementia Care (ADC) Program, to improve program services and offerings and to provide for sustainable funding to meet the needs of the ADC Program’s growing patient population. The ADC Program began in 2012 as a shared vision among Bob Draine, Dr. David Reuben, chief of the UCLA Division of Geriatrics and Archstone Foundation Endowed Chair in Geriatrics, and the division.
Longtime supporters of UCLA Carol Doumani and her husband Roy, who passed away in March, have pledged more than $5 million through their estate to establish the Doumani Research Innovation Fund at the UCLA Eli and Edythe Broad Center of Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research. The fund will provide UCLA faculty with the opportunity to accelerate the pace of discovery in cancer and stem cell biology and lay the foundation to translate these discoveries into clinical practice. Under the direction of the stem cell center director Dr. Owen Witte, resources from the Doumani Research Innovation Fund will enable UCLA scientists to pursue ideas that have the potential to advance the treatment and care of cancer patients.
The John Douglas French Alzheimer’s Foundation, an organization dedicated to funding innovative Alzheimer’s research, has made a contribution to establish an endowed chair in Alzheimer’s disease research in the UCLA Department of Neurology. Dr. John D. French was a distinguished neurosurgeon and the first director of the UCLA Brain Research Institute. Endowing a chair creates continuity of funding, allowing an esteemed faculty member the freedom to pursue novel investigations.
Researchers from the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and the UCLA School of Dentistry have been awarded $5 million over five years from the National Cancer Institute to develop liquid biopsy tools to improve early detection methods for lung cancer, the leading cause of cancer deaths in both men and women in the United States. The award, one of only six given in the nation, will enable principal investigators Drs. Denise Aberle (RES ’85), Kostyantyn Krysan and David Wong to further the UCLA-developed technology known as electric field-induced release and measurement liquid biopsy, created in Dr. Wong’s lab.
The Perlman Family Foundation has contributed $700,000 to support the current and urgent needs of UCLA Health’s vulnerable populations. The gift established the Perlman Angel Fund, a partnership between UCLA clinical units and the UCLA Health Department of Care Coordination and Clinical Social Work and is making gifts that help patients and their families overcome out of hospital financial hardships caused by their illnesses. The funding also will benefit the UCLA Health Partners for Care fund and the 3 Wishes Project. Under the direction of critical care nurse Mary Noli, the Partners for Care fund helps families in need during their time at the hospital. The 3 Wishes Project, led by Dr. Thanh Neville (MD ’05, RES ’08, FEL ’11) and Dr. Peter Phung, improves the end-of-life experience by fulfilling specific wishes unique to each dying patient and their loved ones in the hope of bringing peace.
Founded by the late Debbie Reynolds, The Thalians has raised more than $35 million for mental health charities through the years. Since 2011, The Thalians’ main focus has been the well-being of America’s wounded warriors of UCLA Health Operation Mend, established to treat U.S. military men and women severely wounded during post-9/11 combat or training. In 2014, The Thalians made a pledge of $1 million to support mental health programs for UCLA Operation Mend patients and their families. In December 2018, The Thalians renewed its pledge to Operation Mend for another $1 million.
For more information, contact Health Sciences Development at: 310-206-6484
