San Francisco philanthropists Nancy and Stephen Grand have donated $50 million to the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel, to advance the study of personalized medicine.
The gift is the largest ever made to the American Committee for the Weizmann Institute in its 70-year history.
The biomedical research center will now bear their name: the Nancy and Stephen Grand Israel National Center for Personalized Medicine.
The state-of-the-art center focuses on genomics, protein profiling, bioinformatics and drug discovery. Personalized medicine uses information about one’s genes, proteins and personal medical history to diagnose and treat disease. Aaron Ciechanover, the 2004 Nobel Prize winner in Chemistry, heads the center’s national steering committee.
“Nancy and I recognize that Israel is a world leader in science and technology,” Stephen Grand said in a press release. “This gift enables Weizmann to equip itself to participate in the exploding world of genetics and to find cures for diseases to improve the human condition.”
Stephen Grand co-founded Grand/Sakwa Properties, a developer of residential and retail properties in the Midwest. Before that, he was president and owner of Deco-Grand, a manufacturer of precision components and assemblies for diesel engines and automotive industries. Nancy Grand is the immediate past president of the Jewish Community Federation and Endowment Fund in San Francisco.
The Grands have been active in charitable work both in the United States and in Israel. They ranked 39th on the Chronicle of Philanthropy’s “Philanthropy 50” in 2011 with $28.1 million donated in 2010, including $20 million to Technion-Israel Institute of Technology. Recently, they gave $10 million to establish a Family House in their name near UCSF. Family House provides free, temporary housing for low-income families of children receiving treatment for life-threatening illnesses.