Jessie Cowan/UCLA
Dr. Allen Ginsburg, left, and Charlotte Ginsburg
The Ginsburgs, a married couple of 41 years residing on Los Angeles County's Palos Verdes Peninsula, said their gift was inspired by a desire to continue the quest for knowledge that addresses the human condition.
"Charlotte and I believe strongly that science must inform policy and clinical care, and that future generations must be provided tools and mentors to push discovery forward," said Allen Ginsburg, a retired ophthalmologist who completed his residency at UCLA in 1963. He maintained a medical practice in Redondo Beach, California, for many years.
"We are thrilled to support UCLA's impressive trajectory in precision health research aimed at individualized patient care equitably available to all patients," he said.
Allen Ginsburg is a real estate entrepreneur and philanthropist. Charlotte Ginsburg is a performing arts patron and enthusiast.
The gift includes support for the most modern gene-editing technology platforms to accelerate the translation of research discoveries to therapeutics. Also planned is a new one-stop, multidisciplinary and integrated patient clinic — from diagnosis to treatment and follow-up — on the UCLA campus, near a wide range of UCLA Health's other ambulatory clinics and Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center. In addition, the gift creates the Ginsburg Research Fellowship and an annual symposium, which includes an emphasis on population genetics research and ethics.
The new center will draw from the expertise of physicians and researchers from the UCLA Institute for Precision Health and the human genetics department, as well as faculty specializing in medical genetics, rare diseases, computational medicine and other disciplines.
"The Ginsburg Center reimagines the interrelationship between biomedical research and patient care, and we are proud to partner with Allen and Charlotte Ginsburg to realize our ambitious, shared goals," said Dr. Kelsey Martin, dean of the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA.
"Data-driven, individualized treatment is the future of medicine, and the Ginsburg Center speaks to our enduring commitment to provide patients with the best possible care," said Johnese Spisso, president of UCLA Health, CEO of the UCLA Hospital System and associate vice chancellor of UCLA Health Sciences.
The UCLA Institute of Precision Health was formed in 2016, and the Ginsburg Center joins other priority programs organized under the institute's umbrella. Among them are:
These activities align strongly with the computational medicine department to bring advances in artificial intelligence and machine learning to clinical care.
In addition, UCLA Health announced in November 2020 that it had entered into a collaborative research agreement with the Regeneron Genetics Center to provide whole exome sequencing for 150,000 patients, an important step in bringing genomic medicine to people across California. Regeneron will utilize biological samples donated by patients via the UCLA ATLAS Community Health Initiative.
"All of these programs work in concert with one common objective — advancing therapeutics and scientific discovery through rigorous academic research that utilizes innovative technology and involves extensive collaboration among a wide range of scientists and physicians," said Geschwind, who heads the UCLA Institute of Precision Health and is also a professor of neurology as well as psychiatry and biobehavioral sciences. "The Ginsburg Center is a powerful new element that will significantly accelerate our ongoing efforts by providing key bridging resources."
