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Lupus Research Institute Inducted into Harper Society Founders Circle at University of Chicago May 4th Event Celebrates Contribution of Institute and Others to Intellectual Vitality and Success of University
May 4th, 2007 – The Lupus Research Institute proudly accepted its induction into the Harper Society Founders Circle of organizations that have contributed more than $1 million to the University of Chicago at the fifth annual Chicago Convenes event. As a new member of the Harper Society, the Institute joins other University alumni, friends, corporations and foundations in being honored for lifetime gifts to the University of $1 million or more. “The Lupus Research Institute is grateful for this acknowledgement,” said Dowd in accepting the award. “We have immense faith in the remarkable lupus research that is taking place at this university, and that it will some day soon make a difference in the lives of people with lupus.” The Lupus Research Institute (LRI) is the nation’s only organization exclusively funding novel lupus research, and casts a broad net nationwide to identify and support scientists with the brightest new ideas on how to unlock the mysteries of lupus. Of the 45 studies that the LRI currently funds nationwide, four are in Chicago—a $1.2 million investment. In addition, funding of an additional $300,000 is completed for an investigator who completed his 3-year research study in 2005. Since its founding in 2000, the LRI has backed almost $20 million in novel lupus research nationwide, providing funding for 73 studies at 43 academic medical institutions in 22 states. “Professionally, it was deeply satisfying to be included in this event; to know that the LRI is contributing to the phenomenal work that is taking place at the University of Chicago,” said LRI Chicago Executive Director, Darby N. Tio. “And personally, as a lupus patient, I felt truly grateful to the many people making such a difference in medical research.” These LRI-funded researchers are at the University of Chicago: Jochen Mattner, MD Jian Zhang, MD Martin Weigert, PhD Marcus Clark, MD University of Chicago Medal to Couple with Deep Investment in Immunology Research The event’s candlelit dinner program at Rockefeller Hall also featured the University of Chicago President, Robert J. Zimmer, conferring the institution’s most prestigious award—the University of Chicago Medal—on Gwen and Jules Knapp, a couple with a long history of supporting medical research and lupus and immunology research specifically. The medal recognizes distinguished service of the highest order. The Knapps founded the Jules F. Knapp Medical Research Center and also established the Gwen Knapp Center for Lupus and Immunology Research within it in the mid-1990s.The center is home to biochemists, geneticists, biologists, and immunologists on the hunt for greater knowledge, new treatments, and cures for immunological diseases. The Knapps’ recent landmark gift of $25 million will establish a state-of-the art facility for translational research, the Gwen and Jules F. Knapp Center for Biomedical Discovery. |
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Lupus Research Institute Chicago
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