HYDE PARK —University of Chicago Medicine announced a $100 million gift Wednesday from Craig and Janet Duchossois, the single largest gift in the medical center’s history.
The gift from the CEO of the Duchossois Group and his wife will help fund the Duchossois Family Institute, a new research center focused on wellness and preventing disease.
“We wanted to find a way to be transformative in our giving and looked to the University of Chicago and asked, ‘What is the nature of what’s in our bodies that helps us stay well?’” said Ashley Duchossois Joyce, president of the Duchossois Family Foundation.
“They came back with an answer that connected all the dots, confirming the potential for a new science of wellness that fundamentally explores how the immune system and microbiome interact,” Joyce said.
The new research center will focus on mechanisms in the body keep us well and fight off disease and what doctors can do to help strengthen those systems.
Early research topics expected to be tackled by university scientists and doctors include food allergies in children, childhood asthma, microbes that affect autoimmune diseases, the impact of antibiotics on Alzheimer’s disease and how probiotics affect cancer and other drugs.
“The family recognized the university’s and medical center’s leadership in genomics, the human immune system, data analytics and the microbiome,” said T. Conrad Gilliam, dean for basic science in the division of the biological sciences and who will lead the launch of the institute. “The new institute will integrate these areas into this new science focused on long-standing health and the body’s natural ability to maintain wellness.”
The research center is expected to partner with the university’s Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation to potentially commercialize the research done at the new institute.
