University of Colorado Anschutz (CU Anschutz) has announced a $200 million collaboration with the Denver-based Gates Family Foundation to establish a medical research institute at the university’s Anschutz Medical Campus.

To be funded over five years by investments from the university and the foundation’s Gates Frontier Fund, the Gates Institute will focus on unleashing the potential of stem cell research to fuel medical innovations in cell and gene therapies for cancer and rare diseases, building on the research of recent collaborations including the Gates Center for Regenerative Medicine and Gates Biomanufacturing Facility, with the goal of accelerating the transition of scientific discoveries from the laboratory to clinical use.

“We share CU Anschutz’s vision to simultaneously fuel medical innovation while reducing the time required to get those innovations where they are needed most–to the patient,” said foundation trustee Diane Gates Wallach. “Our father believed that to move the needle, it’s important to invest in places that aren’t constrained by convention and are led and staffed by those driven to enhance the quality of life for those in our community and beyond.”

We share a deep commitment to creating a future in which new discoveries and novel therapies make their way more quickly than ever before from research bench to patient bedside,” said CU Anschutz chancellor Donald M. Elliman, Jr. “With the establishment of the Gates Institute, we can advance the leading-edge work already underway here at unmatched speed and scope.”

(Photo credit: University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus)