san diego

A Neurogenetic Institute with at least 30 faculty posts is to be set up at the University of Southern California (USC) with part of a $110 million grant to the School of Medicine.

The grant, from the W. M. Keck Foundation, is one of the largest ever given to a US medical college. It is due to be announced today (29 July) along with plans to name the university's medical school after the foundation.

The Neurogenetic Institute will combine the efforts of 50 faculty members from within USC with the 30 to 35 new appointments. It will be housed in a research centre to be completed in two years on USC's Health Science Campus in East Los Angeles. USC officials estimate that one-third of the Keck grant will be used for the neurogenetic initiative.

Brian Henderson, a medical epidemiologist, will direct the institute, which will use an interdisciplinary approach to examine diseases such as Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, glaucoma, retinitis pigmentosa, macular degeneration, schizophrenia and manic depression.

“The challenge is to unravel the variables leading to neurological disorders and to obtain data on the malfunction of the expressed genes that cause disease,” says Henderson, the former director of the USC/Kenneth Norris Jr Comprehensive Cancer Center.

Principal research goals for the institute will include sequencing and characterizing critical nervous system genes, characterizing genotypic variations, and determining their role in disorders of sensory, motor and cognitive functions. Other important goals include identifying the genetic mechanisms in the molecular pathogenesis of neuropsychiatric and neurological disorders to devise diagnostics and therapeutics, as well as linking genetic susceptibilities with environmental and psychological risk factors.

Henderson says the USC medical school has historically been oriented primarily towards clinical care, but is now seeking to enhance its research efforts. “What USC badly needs is research faculty,” he says.

As a condition of the Keck grant, USC has agreed to raise an additional $330 million for its medical school. Established in 1954 by the founder of Superior Oil, the Keck foundation of Los Angeles has previously given more than $140 million to USC and its faculty members.