Philanthropist couple Gary and Alya Michelson have announced a $120 million donation to establish the California Institute for Immunology and Immunotherapy in UCLA’s new research park. The new institute will consist of two research facilities, each receiving $50 million for their establishment. One will focus on rapidly developing vaccines and the second will seek to harness the human microbiome to improve health. The microbiome research will be conducted in collaboration with the UCLA Goodman-Luskin Microbiome Center, making the institute one of the world’s largest microbiome research enterprises.
The remaining $20 million will go to an endowment at UCLA that will provide research grants to scientists pursuing novel approaches in immunotherapy research, human immunology and vaccine development. The endowment is aimed at young researchers and aims to nurture the next generation of scientific leaders and accelerate progress in these important areas.
“Immunology is the mediator of nearly all human disease, whether it’s cancer, heart disease or Alzheimer’s,” Michelson said. “The vision of this institute is to become a ‘field of dreams’ – the world’s leading center for immune system research to develop advanced immunotherapies that can prevent, treat and cure all the diseases that plague humans today, and to eradicate these diseases in our lifetimes.”
Michelson is a renowned spine surgeon and inventor who holds nearly 1,000 patents. His inventions of new implants, instruments and procedures greatly improved the success rates of spine surgeries. Many of these are called “Michelson devices” and assist surgical procedures by reducing blood loss and incision size while taking other factors into account.
“The UCLA community is grateful to Alya and Gary Michelson for this transformative gift,” said UCLA Interim Chancellor Darnell Hunt. “The Michelsons envisioned an institute that would leverage UCLA’s strengths to maximize public benefit, create new knowledge that leads to better medical treatments, and reshape the study of immunology. This gift will change countless lives here and around the world.”
The institute will occupy 360,000 square feet of the UCLA Research Park, located on the site of the former Westside Pavilion. This new facility, part of a 700,000 square foot development, was acquired by UCLA in January 2024 with a $200 million grant from the State of California. The institute will be housed in UCLA’s David Geffen School of Medicine.
Former UCLA Chancellor Gene Block, who spearheaded the acquisition of the Westside Pavilion property, said, “I am incredibly excited to see the institute take shape – thanks in large part to the work and contributions of the Michelsons and our other partners. The institute exemplifies UCLA’s ongoing commitment to using scientific research for the public good and will cement our university’s position as one of the world’s leading centers for medical innovation.”
The Michelsons’ philanthropic efforts extend beyond this latest donation. Over the past 30 years, they have donated hundreds of millions of dollars to causes including social inequality, medical research, education reform, prison reform, and animal welfare. Most notably, they fund the Michelson Prizes for immunology and vaccine research. In 2016, the couple signed The Giving Pledge, a campaign launched by Bill Gates and Warren Buffett that encourages the wealthiest individuals and families to donate the majority of their wealth to philanthropic causes.
