The University of California at San Francisco on Tuesday announced it has received a $185 million donation from Sanford and Joan Weill to help build the UCSF Weill Institute for Neurosciences and advance other projects.
The university said it's the biggest gift in the school's history and it will fund the construction of a 270,000 square-foot, six-story neurosciences building at Mission Bay. The donation also will help support a scholars program that allows neuroscience graduate students to purse high-risk research, the university said.
Sanford Weill, chairman of the executive council for UCSF Health and former CEO of Citigroup, said in a release that he and his wife were inspired to make this gift because they recognized the potential of UCSF physicians and scientists to significantly advance the understanding of brain diseases and lay the groundwork for new therapies.
The university expects to start construction next fall, with completion by 2020.
The donation from the Weills isn't the only gift UCSF has received recently. In November, the Atlantic Philanthropies awarded both UCSF and Trinity College Dublin, the University of Dublin, $177 million to create the Global Brain Health Institute for research of dementia. Donations to the university's neuroscience programs last year surpassed $500 million, UCSF said.
