If the Knight Cancer Institute at Oregon Health & Science University can raise $500 million over the next two years, Nike co-founder and chairman Phil Knight has pledged to match it, kickstarting a 10-year, $1 billion cancer research initiative.
But if the university can’t raise the money, it gets nothing from Knight.
That was the challenge he and his wife, Penny, issued the university last week.
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The university and the institute were happy to accept it. Raising $1 billion in new funds would help the institute bring in new researchers and doctors, its leaders say, and build on breakthroughs it’s already achieved. Dr. Brian Druker, director of the institute, developed the targeted anti-cancer drug Gleevec there along with an investigator from Novartis, which now markets the drug for treatment of chronic myeloid leukemia.
Today, Druker told the press that the insitute’s 10-year vision emphasizes the exploration of cancer at the molecular level, to enable advances in early cancer detection and treatment through collaborations with industry partners.
Previously, the Knights gave $100 million to the institute back in 2008.
[Image credit: OHSU.edu]