The University of California, San Francisco has announced a $185 million gift from Joan and Sanford I. Weill and the Weill Family Foundation in support of efforts to accelerate the development of new therapies for diseases affecting the brain and nervous system.

The largest gift in UCSF history will establish the UCSF Weill Institute for Neurosciences — bringing together the departments of Neurology, Psychiatry, and Neurological Surgery; the Neuroscience Graduate Program; and the UCSF Institute for Neurodegenerative Diseases — and help underwrite construction of a 270,000-square-foot building at the university's Mission Bay campus to house the institute as well as state-of-the-art research laboratories and clinics. The gift also will create an innovation fund to support high-risk, high-reward research projects aimed at finding new treatments for neurological and psychiatric illnesses; a Weill Fellows program that offer sfinancial support to Ph.D. students in the Neuroscience Graduate Program; and a Weill Scholars program for promising junior faculty.

"It's an opportunity to better connect the bench and the bedside to make a bigger impact in neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer's, ALS, and Parkinson's — as well as multiple sclerosis and other diseases," said Joan Weill, who with her husband signed the Giving Pledge in 2010. "In addition, by bringing basic research in psychiatry into the fold of the neurosciences, we can help advance our understanding of mental illness and help remove stigmas associated with mental health, so that they can be treated like any other disease of the body."

"Given budget constraints at the local, state, and federal levels, it is no secret that governments will not have the ability to fund all that is needed in biomedical research and beyond," said Sanford I. ("Sandy") Weill. "Individuals, foundations, and companies must step up to the plate to help fill this void to create public/private partnerships to enhance education, medical research, and culture. This, we believe, will be the new paradigm in philanthropy for the future."