The Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, has announced a $49 million gift from the Richard M. Schulze Family Foundation to establish a new research center and support the infrastructure and programs of the Mayo Clinic Cancer Center.

As its primary mission, the Mayo Clinic Schulze Center for Novel Therapeutics will translate laboratory findings into effective cancer therapies that will minimally affect a patient's quality of life before, during, and after treatment. Key to the research is expansion of the cancer center's activities in cancer genomics, with a focus on acquiring disciplined data sets to partially populate the Mayo Life Sciences System and developing treatments for cancers that typically do not receive major funding. Construction on the new center will begin in 2006, with partial occupancy scheduled for 2007.

The grant will also endow two named professorships — the Sandra J. Schulze Professor and the Richard M. Schulze Family Foundation Professor — to recognize scientists acclaimed for their work in cancer research; support postdoctoral fellowships through the Mayo Clinic Schulze Scholars program; and establish an annual symposium on novel cancer therapeutics, organized with other leading academic institutions engaged in cancer therapy-related research, to be rotated among different Mayo Clinic sites. "It is our sincere belief that the prospect of improved treatment and potential eradication of some cancers is closer than some would believe," said Richard Schulze. "Mayo Clinic's talented group of leaders, physicians, and researchers shares this belief."

"This substantial gift will allow us to make great strides in cancer research and treatment," said Dr. Franklyn Prendergast, director of the cancer center. "Now we must learn how to use modern technologies and the new knowledge of cancer biology to develop more effective and humane therapies for patients who have cancer."