University of Florida officials announced a multimillion dollar contribution to establish UF Health’s Institute for Neurological Diseases on Friday.
A $20 million gift from the Lauren and Lee Fixel Family Foundation will be used to establish the Norman Fixel Institute for Neurological Diseases. UF will match the gift, making it a $40 million contribution toward a $100 million goal to boost resources to improve treatment of neurological disorders.
The institute will be focused on advancing research, technological innovation and clinical care for Parkinson’s disease and other neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer’s, Lewy body, ALS, dystonia and concussions. Dr. Michael Okun, a professor and chair of UF’s department of neurology, will serve as executive director of the institute. Dr. Kelly Foote, a professor of neurosurgery at UF, will serve as co-director with Okun.
UF Health physicians Kelly Foote, left, and Michael Okun, at a press conference Friday morning where officials announced a $40 million contribution to UF Health in the form of a $20 million gift from the Fixel family with a $20 million matching funds gift from UF. [LAUREN BACHO/GAINESVILLE SUN]
UF provost Joe Glover announced the gift on Friday near the site of the institute off Williston Road, which remains under construction and is set to be completed on July 1. About 50-75 school leaders and dignitaries were in attendance, including former UF president Marshall Criser. Glover thanked the Fixel family, who attended the event.
“With their generous help and with this support, we are poised to be world leaders in this important area of medicine,” Glover said.
The $20 million that UF will provide for support will be funded by money raised through the Provost’s Office and UF Health.
The institute will be named in honor of Lee’s dad, Norman, who was diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease more than 20 years ago and was treated at UF Health Shands Hospital. Norman Fixel earned a bachelor’s in business at UF in 1975, while Lauren Fixel was a 2007 graduate in UF’s College of Journalism and Communications.
Lee Fixel is a partner with Tiger Global Management, a private equity firm that has invested in internet and software startups in India, Argentina and throughout the Middle East. Fixel is listed as 43rd on Forbes Magazine’s Midas List of top 100 tech investors in 2018. According to Inside Philanthropy, the Lauren and Lee Fixel Family Foundation are strong supporters the arts and health and sciences, including the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s research. Prior to the $20 million donation, the Fixels made a $4 million contribution to start construction of the institute.
“Our goal of this gift is to accelerate the impact that this team is having in so many patients, including my father,” Lee Fixel said. “One of the things that I’ve learned in my career is the density of human capital, the ability to bring together so many of the best and brightest minds, can have exponential impact in solving complicated problems.
“This is how some of the biggest technology companies were built, Google, Facebook, Apple, and Amazon. I believe the same can happen here in neuromedicine at the University of Florida.”
Together, Foote and Okun plan to use the $40 million to recruit five of the top research teams related to neurological disorders and establish five laboratories for those researchers. In addition, the donation will create an endowment that will be used to support fellowship and postdoctoral researchers, all with a primary focus on Parkinson’s.
“We’re trying to identify groups that are, number one, willing to come but more importantly most likely to have a significant impact,” Foote said. “If we harness that impact and have them all in the same place working together, we think that that’s going to have a transformative impact.”
Okun said he expects the combination of research and clinical care at the institute to serve as a model for future healthcare.
“When you walk into this center, you will be able to see nine different specialists the same day,” Okun said. “Five research laboratories, all of the colleges will have access to be able to come here free of charge to advance their research and bring us the next generation of discoveries.”
During the ceremony, Foote recounted his treatment and interactions with Norman Fixel and his family, praising their determination and generosity. Foote admitted that his initial surgical procedure with Fixel did not go as well as planned, and as a result the Fixel family spent more time in Gainesville as intended. But through that setback, Foote said he was able to create a bond with the Fixel family that led to the vision of the institute.
“If the operation had gone as well as they intended, they would have flown out the next day and everyone would have been happy,” Foote said. “But maybe we wouldn’t be here today celebrating something that is much larger than any of us individually.”
For Okun and Foote, the creation of the institute is the completion of a vision close to two decades in the making, which began when the two started working together at UF Health in 2002. Since then, Okun said he’s witnessed developing therapies that are reaching the bedside, including new devices and new drugs. But Okun said more innovations need to come.
“When I see patients, I often think of the picture of the man standing on top of the globe, looking at his watch,” Okun said. “He’s got this disease, this degenerative disease, time is ticking. It matters. It matters how fast we are able to translate these discoveries and this institute will help us to get there a little faster.”
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