A dozen years ago when John P. Hussman’s 3-year-old son was diagnosed with autism, he was told there were no treatments for the disorder. But he decided there should be. He decided to do all he could to help fight the developmental disorder that affected his son and as many as one in every 150 children in the United States.
Hussman’s strong conviction that the right therapy can be discovered was evident on August 27 when he announced his support of $20 million to the Miller School’s Miami Institute for Human Genomics and the work of Margaret Pericak-Vance, Ph.D., director of the institute and an internationally renowned researcher in autism and other common diseases.
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| Celebrating the advancement of genomics research: from left, Miller School Dean Pascal J. Goldschmidt, M.D., Jeffery Vance, M.D., Ph.D., Margaret Pericak-Vance, Ph.D., John P. Hussman, Ph.D., and Terri Hussman. |
“I am convinced that with the work here at the institute, those days [without a treatment for autism] will be behind us,” Hussman said at the news conference attended by University officials, institute researchers, and local and national media.
In honor of the extraordinary commitment, the institute has been renamed the John P. Hussman Institute for Human Genomics.
“Today is an absolutely memorable and fantastic day,” Dean Pascal J. Goldschmidt, M.D., said at the announcement ceremony, an occasion he called “extraordinarily significant” because it is a commitment to the eradication of certain diseases, and few academic institutions are benefiting from large gifts during the current economic downturn.
Since opening two years ago, the institute has created dozens of jobs and attracted support from the Dr. John T. Macdonald Foundation and the State of Florida. Funds from Hussman’s gift will
go toward matching an $80 million state economic development grant awarded
last year based on recommendations from Enterprise Florida to the Office of Tourism, Trade, and Economic Development.
University President Donna E.
Shalala said the Hussman announcement marked “an incredible day” for the University, the medical school, and the institute, which was created when Goldschmidt recruited Pericak-Vance and her husband, Jeffery Vance, M.D., Ph.D., professor and chair of the Miller School’s Dr. John T. Macdonald Foundation Department of Human Genetics, from Duke University. Hussman met the
Vances about six years ago.
Hussman’s gift “will accelerate
the growth of the institute, and we
will become the most important center of this kind anywhere in the world,”
said Shalala, who went on to introduce Hussman as “a successful human being and civic leader, and a person who is willing to bet on people and institutions he deeply believes in.”
Hussman is president and principal shareholder of Hussman Econometrics Advisors, the investment advisory firm
that manages the Hussman Funds. He received his Ph.D. in economics from Stanford University. Prior to managing
the Hussman Funds, he was a professor
of economics and international finance at the University of Michigan. He established the John P. Hussman Foundation, which provides financial support for projects that have the capacity to save or significantly improve human lives.
Hussman has been steadfast in supporting autism research and has long been involved in the research of Pericak-Vance, who is also the Dr. John T. Macdonald Foundation Professor of Human Genomics. She has uncovered key genes that impact major human clinical disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease, multiple sclerosis, and, recently, autism. Hussman has contributed his own unique expertise in data mining to the search
for autism risk genes and has co-authored several of Pericak-Vance’s publications.
“I am honored to accept this gift,” Pericak-Vance said at the ceremony. “John and I share a passion for autism genetics research. We have the technology here, and John’s gift will help make it possible to figure out the answers to this complex problem.
This is really exciting.”
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