- The Maxine and Stuart Frankel Foundation announced it gifted The University of Michigan with a $20 million gift to support the research and development of life-saving therapies
The Maxine and Stuart Frankel Foundation of Bloomfield Hills, Michigan has gifted The University of Michigan with a $20 million gift to support the research and development of life-saving therapies at Michigan Medicine in collaboration with other institutions. The gift will be used for establishing the Maxine and Stuart Frankel Innovation Initiative, which will advance U-M faculty-led collaborative projects that have the potential for rapid clinical application.
“We hope this gift will create an environment that will support collaboration among professionals,” said Stuart Frankel. “We encourage doctors, researchers, people from engineering and other areas, to work together in hopes of achieving monumental, life-saving research. We want the best minds from the University of Michigan and around the world to collaborate on the most innovative research and take scientific discovery to a new level.”
This initiative is going to build on best practices of the standout programs developed at The University of Michigan and other major institutions thus capitalizing on the university’s extensive biomedical research enterprise as the top public university in research spending in the United States.
“Maxine and Stuart Frankel’s gift will ensure that the University of Michigan advances its leadership in cutting-edge research that saves lives in our communities,” added U-M President Mark Schlissel. “The gift will help us translate scientific discoveries into treatments that can reach patients in need. I appreciate the Frankels’ generosity and their commitment to both innovation and U-M’s very special role as a top public university.”
This initiative will be administered by Fast Forward Medical Innovation (FFMI), which is a unit of Michigan Medicine with deep expertise in moving medical technologies from idea to commercialization.
“Through FFMI and a host of other established resources at Michigan Medicine, we are committed to bringing together biomedical innovation and entrepreneurship. As such, we are well-positioned to partner with other institutions to transform the Frankels’ generosity into results — moving from the early stages of research into life-saving therapies,” commented Fast Forward Medical Innovation managing director Bradley Martin, Ph.D.
Maxine and Stuart Frankel are both graduates of U of M and they have a long history in philanthropy. This gift was inspired in part by the groundbreaking work of Robert Bartlett, M.D., professor emeritus in the department of surgery — who is known as the father of extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO). ECMO is a machine used for replacing the function of the heart and lungs in critically ill patients.
“We are extremely grateful for this gift, which will allow our researchers to move their cutting-edge therapies and other innovative approaches to improving health faster into the life-saving hands of clinicians and scientists everywhere,” explained Marschall Runge, M.D., Ph.D., executive vice president for medical affairs and dean of the University of Michigan Medical School and CEO of Michigan Medicine.
Now Bartlett — with continued support from the Frankels through this gift — is currently working with several collaborators throughout U of M to develop other life support technologies, including work that could potentially increase the viability of organs for transplantation.
“Michigan Medicine is a leader in translational medicine, and our researchers are renowned for their enthusiasm and expertise when it comes to collaboration, both here at the university and globally. This generous support from the Frankels will go a long way toward accelerating this creative engagement and resulting research to market,” stated Steven Kunkel, Ph.D., executive vice dean for research of the Medical School and chief scientific officer of Michigan Medicine.
Recently, the Frankels have supported the translational research program of internal medicine professor H. David Humes, M.D. and his group. And this program has developed innovative devices to treat a variety of inflammatory conditions, including systemic infections and sepsis with very high mortality rates. Plus this gift will continue to support Humes’ program to develop and evaluate miniaturized devices to treat neonates and infants, the tiniest of patients in the intensive care unit.
There is a clinical trial of Humes’ pediatric sepsis device underway at 7 hospitals around the country thus illustrating that the innovative research pursued at one institution can be bolstered by the work of multiple researchers and institutions. And Bartlett is leading a worldwide group of scientists who are trying to solve the limitations to prolonged organ perfusion. Typically, organ preservation by perfusion is limited to six hours — but in laboratory tests, the Michigan team has perfused hearts of animal models for three days.
Upon meeting Bartlett, Humes, and several others, the Frankels recognized that similar high-risk, high-reward research occurring throughout the university could benefit from investment by private enterprise. And the gift will be used to fund 5-7 projects per year, which will be selected by an oversight committee of internationally renowned scientists and venture capitalists external to U-M. Plus the Frankels will also be involved in this process.
“We were most interested in funding research at the initial stages so the scientists are able to have the support to get where they need to go,” noted Maxine Frankel. “There’s no stopping them once they have the support that they need. The results could be monumental.”
Michigan Medicine operates out of 3 hospitals, 125 clinics, and home care operations that handle over 2.3 million outpatient visits a year as well as educate the next generation of physicians, health professionals, and scientists at the U of M Medical School.
