The Jackson Laboratory announced today that technology investor David Roux and his wife Barbara have gifted $10 million to support research and find cures for genetically based diseases. The center will be based at the Laboratory's locations in both Maine and Connecticut.
The newly announced Roux gift will be used to initiate the creation of the Roux Family Center for Genomics and Computational Biology. This center will be endowed with three new faculty chair positions and a permanent fund for recruiting expert staff and driving research and discovery at the Laboratory.
The center will enable scientists to harness the full power of innovative genomic technologies and computational strategies, using them to analyze the human genome and discover new and better ways of preventing and treating disease.
The Rouxs' initial donation of $5 million will trigger a matching gift in their honor by JAX for a total gift of $10 million.
"At a time when public funding for disease research continues to dwindle, David and Barbara Roux have stepped forward to make a truly inspirational statement about the importance of supporting the future of genomic medicine in the shared quest to improve human health," said Edison T. Liu, M.D., president and CEO of The Jackson Laboratory. "Their gift provides incredibly important leadership in this cause, and we are enormously grateful for their generosity."
"Barbara and I are tremendously excited by the work that The Jackson Laboratory is doing in the area of genomic medicine," said David Roux, co-founder and senior director of Silver Lake, one of the world's leading private equity firms, and a member of the JAX board of trustees. "This remarkable research is transforming the world's understanding of disease and the search for personalized and precise cures. We are privileged to help support these efforts."
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The Jackson Laboratory is an independent, nonprofit biomedical research institution based in Bar Harbor, Maine, with a facility in Sacramento, Calif., and a new genomic medicine institute in Farmington, Conn. It employs 1,600 staff, and its mission is to discover precise genomic solutions for disease and empower the global biomedical community in the shared quest to improve human health.