Billionaire medical device inventor and philanthropist Gary Michelson and his wife Alya have committed to donate $120 million to the UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine, the largest donation the couple have made to date.
The bulk of the money – $100 million – is earmarked for the development of a state immunology institute at a UCLA research park now under construction at the former Westside Pavilion shopping mall in Westwood.
Michelson is one of a group of six philanthropists who have promised to commit hundreds of millions of dollars toward the center; he also serves as co-founder and co-chair of the institute.
The group includes three other billionaires: biotech magnate Arie Belldegrun, former junk bond king-turned philanthropist Michael Milken and tech titan Sean Parker. Also part of the group are food waste recycling magnate Meyer Luskin and Eric Esraelian, UCLA health sciences clinical professor of medicine.
“The UCLA community owes Alya and Gary Michelson a debt of gratitude for this transformative gift,” said UCLA Interim Chancellor Darnell Hunt. “The Michelsons envisioned an institute that would leverage UCLA’s strengths for maximum public good, create new knowledge leading to better medical treatments, and reshape the study of immunology. The gift will change countless lives here and across the globe.”
The physical institute is now taking shape at the former Westside Pavilion shopping mall, with full buildout not expected for several years. But in an earlier interview, Michelson said he envisions the first scientists able to move in by the end of next year.
“The vision for this institute is to become a ‘field of dreams’ – the world’s leading center for the study of the immune system to develop advanced immunotherapies to prevent, treat and cure all of the diseases that afflict people today and to end these diseases in our lifetime,” he said in this most recent announcement.
The UCLA gift for the immunology institute, distributed through the Michelson Medical Research Foundation, splits the $100 million evenly between two research entities. One of those will focus on rapid vaccine development and the other on harnessing the human microbiome to advance human health. The microbiome research will be conducted in collaboration with the new UCLA Goodman-Luskin Microbiome Research Center and would be one of the largest microbiome research ventures in the world.
The remaining $20 million of the Michelsons’ UCLA Geffen gift will be distributed through another of Michelson’s philanthropic entities: the 20MM Foundation. It will set up a scholarship program for young scientists seeking to advance immunology research.
Michelson, a spinal surgeon and prolific medical device inventor with nearly 1,000 patents, became a billionaire in 2005 thanks to a $1.35 billion settlement with medical manufacturing giant Medtronic following an extended legal battle over many of his patents. He invested the payout into Karlin Asset Management, an investment firm which currently handles more than $1.5 billion in venture capital, private equity, real estate, natural resources and other asset classes.
Last year, Michelson ranked No. 33 on the Business Journal’s Wealthiest Angelenos list with a net worth of $2.7 billion.
Michelson also took some of the settlement proceeds and founded a philanthropy empire with three foundations and two nonprofits. In 2016, Michelson and his wife Alya signed the Giving Pledge, a campaign launched by Bill Gates and Warren Buffett encouraging centimillionaires and billionaires to contribute the majority of their fortunes to philanthropic causes.
In 2014, Michelson donated $50 million to USC to establish the Michelson Center for Convergent Bioscience, which opened in 2017.
