Billionaire David Murdock announced Monday that he will donate $35 million to Duke for a landmark biomedical research project.
The donation by Murdock, owner and chair of Dole Food Company, is the largest ever received by the Duke University School of Medicine.
"This is very unique because, to my knowledge, I don't know of anyone who's given in this fashion, that is to say, 'I have faith in your research,'" said Dr. Victor Dzau, chancellor for health affairs and president and CEO of the Duke University Health System. "[Murdock] has a kind of vision and it's kind of a passion, and he's willing to give the dollars to support it."
The project, named M.U.R.D.O.C.K.-for the Measurement to Understand the Reclassification of Disease of Cabarrus and Kannapolis-will study how examining genes could directly predict a patient's potential risk to develop certain medical conditions in the future.
This research could possibly allow doctors to assess an individual's chance of developing a condition such as heart disease or diabetes early in that person's lifetime, said Dr. Robert Califf, director of the Duke Translational Medicine Institute and lead investigator of the M.U.R.D.O.C.K. study.
"This idea of using modern genomics and other state-of-the-art biotechnology to get a new look at diseases at the molecular level has been dreamed about for several years now," President Richard Brodhead wrote in an e-mail. "But only Duke has been able to pull together the massive databases, the tissue banks and frankly, the funding to do it the way it needs to be done."
Integrating all of the knowledge of the human genome will allow scientists to measure risk factors they were unable to assess before, Califf said.
The research is the beginning of a major change that will mark the next big step in personalized medicine, he added.
"Having $35 million in our pocket will enable us to do things we imagined could never have been done," Califf said. "To me, this is sort of like a dream."
Research for the new biotechnology project will take place at the North Carolina Research Campus in Kannapolis, N.C., located west of Durham. Murdock funded the construction of the research campus earlier this year.
In addition to the work done by Duke scientists, M.U.R.D.O.C.K. will depend on contributions from local doctors in nearby counties to provide valuable information and field studies, Califf said.
"With the long-term participation of the citizens and health care professionals of the Kannapolis area, we're viewing this as a project that will become a true landmark in American medicine," Brodhead said.
In the presentation ceremony Monday, which Brodhead, Dzau and Califf attended, Murdock said the reason for the donation stems from the death of his wife to cancer.
"With my gift to Duke and the work that will be done at the North Carolina Research Campus, this passion becomes the point of departure for a scientific adventure that will save countless lives," Murdock said in a statement. "And for that, I am grateful."
David Graham contributed reporting to this story.
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