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NEWS RELEASES
HOUSTON (Dec.
14, 2007) – A ceremonial groundbreaking was held at Texas Children's
Hospital for the Jan
and Dan Duncan Neurological Research Institute just 8 weeks
after the couple gave a record $50 million to help launch the
world’s preeminent collaborative institute to study and treat
pediatric neurological disorders. Construction will begin in
January, 2008.
Scheduled for
completion in 2010, the Jan and Dan Neurological Research Institute
at Texas Children's Hospital will be a new model of excellence as
the first dedicated facility in the United States to use a
multidisciplinary research approach to understand the unique issues
of a child’s brain structure, development patterns and related
diseases.
The 370,000
square foot building will be home to more than 170 researchers who
hope to bring new promise to those afflicted with neurological
diseases as they look for new treatments for common pediatric
neurological disorders like autism, epilepsy, Rhett syndrome,
cerebral palsy and learning disorders.
"It's going to
attract experts from a variety of disciplines that typically you
don't think of as being experts to work on a problem such as a
disease and bring them together. That's what's been lacking in
medicine, approaching the human body, approaching the brain with the
complexity it requires,” said Huda
Zoghbi, M.D., director of the Jan and
Dan Neurological Research Institute. “How can you explain a
network that is much more complicated than the Web? A biologist or a
clinician can do it, but when you bring a mathematician who can talk
to the biologist and think together about it, you can approach it
better, so that's what's unique here."
Worldwide, one
billion people suffer from some form of the more than 600 disorders
that afflict the nervous system. In the United States, 50 million
children and adults—more than the number of Americans with heart
disease or cancer combined—are affected by a neurological or
neurodevelopmentally-handicapping condition.
“Pediatric
neurologic diseases represent one of the last frontiers in pediatric
medicine. We can diagnose many of these diseases and we can modulate
the condition with various kinds of therapies, but we can’t really
change the underlying disorder, said Ralph
D. Feigin, M.D., physician-in-chief at Texas Children's
Hospital. “What we hope to do with this institute is truthfully
treat these diseases in a very definitive way so that children can
live a normal life.”
Jan Duncan, a member of the Texas Children’s Board of Trustees,
said she and her husband were moved by the burden of the
overwhelming number of different neurological disorders and were
surprised to see how many are interrelated.
“We are so happy
to break ground for this research facility,” said Jan Duncan.
“Research support in this area is not commensurate with the impact
of these diseases. Dan and I want to help call attention to the
great need to focus on research and treatments to help those who are
suffering. It’s not being done anywhere else,” she said.
Dan Duncan is chairman and director of Houston-based Enterprise
Products, a leading North American provider of midstream energy
services. He has made a number of significant philanthropic
investments in and outside of the Houston community to advance
medicine, education, spiritual endeavors, and conservation efforts.
For more
information about the Jan and Dan Duncan Neurological Research
Institute at Texas Children’s Hospital visit
www.NRI.texaschildrens.org
About Texas
Children’s Hospital
Texas Children's Hospital (TCH), one of the top pediatric
organizations in the world, is in the midst of a $1.5 billion
investment. Aptly titled Vision 2010 - Excellence to Eminence, this
is the largest short-term investment ever by a single children's
hospital anywhere in the world. Major projects, which are scheduled
for completion by 2010, include the creation of a comprehensive
neurological research institute, the formation of a maternity
center, and the expansion of existing research facilities and the
development of one of the largest pediatric hospitals in a suburban
setting.
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