Houston Methodist has announced a $21 million gift from the Jerold B. Katz Foundation to accelerate the development of new treatments and therapies.

The largest non-estate gift in the hospital's nearly one-hundred-year history will support translational research at the Houston Methodist Research Institute aimed at moving scientific discoveries quickly from the laboratory to the patient. The gift includes $12 million to establish the Jerold B. Katz Academy of Translational Research, which initially will endow eight Katz Investigator positions, and $4 million to endow the Jerold B. Katz Translational Research Infrastructure Fund to ensure that laboratories at the hospital have the specialized equipment needed to support research. The remaining $5 million will provide matching funds for the Translational Research Initiative II, a fund to help researchers avoid the "Valley of Death" — a lack of funding following a scientific discovery that prevents its successful translation to use in humans.

"New medical therapies or drugs typically take two decades and billions of dollars to go from the research lab to the patient's bedside," said Mauro Ferrari, president and CEO of the Houston Methodist Research Institute. "This generous donation from the Katz Foundation can help speed the process and bring viable treatment options to patients across the spectrum of human health. Because of the way the Katz Foundation gift is structured, it also will stimulate a cross-pollination of ideas among clinicians and scientists to treat the world's worst diseases and conditions."

"The gift was designed to continuously seed research and find better medications and treatments for patients," said Evan H. Katz, one of Jerold B. Katz's sons and a trustee of the foundation. "There is no better way to encourage successful innovation and discovery than to bring together the best of the best, from different fields, to think outside of the box and then together bring never-before considered solutions to bear on the most vexing diseases facing humankind."