A $10.2 million gift from a North Carolina family’s foundation will help fund research at Duke University using umbilical cord stem cells as a novel treatment for cerebral palsy, the university announced today.
The Robertson Foundation grant establishes a Translational Cell Therapy Center at Duke that will advance cell-based treatments, notably the work of Dr. Joanne Kurtzberg. She has an international following after pioneering the use of umbilical cord cells to treat cancer and genetic disorders in children.
The grant is the latest large donation from private sources to advance medical research at local universities. It comes on the heels of more than $150 million in scientific research grants to Triangle institutions from federal tax stimulus dollars.
