CALIFORNIA: Salk Institute Gets $7M Donation To Found Neroscience Center

[Murray Charters <mcharters@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

LA JOLLA, CA: Salk Institute Gets $7M Donation To Found Neroscience Center
By: BRADLEY J. FIKES - Staff Writer

Last modified Wednesday, December 17, 2003 7:31 PM PST

Megaphilanthropists Joan and Irwin Jacobs have given $7 million to the Salk 
Institute for Biological Studies to found a
neuroscience center at the famed institute in La Jolla. The gift was announced 
Wednesday.

The center's title incorporates the Jacobs' name and that of Salk researcher 
Francis Crick. He and James Watson
discovered the function of DNA 50 years ago, a feat for which they won the 
Nobel Prize. In the last two decades, Crick
has been wrestling with the mysteries of how brain function gives rise to 
consciousness.

"We are proud to invest in the Crick-Jacobs Center for Computational and 
Theoretical Biology and to honor the work of
Francis Crick and his colleagues at the Salk Institute," Irwin Jacobs said in a 
statement.

Together with UC San Diego, the Scripps Research Institute and other major La 
Jolla biomedical research outfits, the
Salk Institute forms the academic core of San Diego County's growing 
biotechnology sector.

The Salk Institute has long emphasized neuroscience, the field of brain 
research. The new center will extend the Salk's
reach to encompass large-scale data analysis, a field that requires expertise 
in computer science.

"It's going to allow us to hire four new mathematicians and computer scientists 
who will help us really understand all
of the data that are being generated about the brain," said Richard A. Murphy, 
the institute's president and chief
executive. "One of the problems we have is managing all the information that is 
coming from research."

Ultimately, the goal is to create theories of how the brain works that 
correlate basic biological discoveries such as
the function of genes and proteins with the networks of nerve cells involved in 
brain functions such as memory, vision
or thinking, Murphy said. This could increase understanding of brain diseases 
such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's
diseases and mental illnesses.

The $7 million gift comes weeks after a $30 million donation to the institute's 
endowment, announced on Nov. 18.

The Jacobses earned their fortune from Qualcomm, the San Diego-based 
telecommunications giant co-founded by Irwin
Jacobs in 1985. In the last few years, the couple have made a series of large 
gifts to San Diego educational and
artistic organizations:

In March, $110 million to UCSD's Jacobs School of Engineering.

In January 2002, $100 million to the perennially cash-strapped San Diego 
Symphony.

In 1998, $15 million to UCSD's School of Engineering, renamed the Jacobs School 
of Engineering in the couple's honor.
(Irwin Jacobs joined UCSD's faculty in 1966 as a professor of computer science 
and engineering.)

At the root of this largesse is Qualcomm's Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) 
technology, which is being adopted by
cellular telephone companies around the world. Qualcomm's rising stock price 
has made many stockholders quite rich.

Although Qualcomm stock is less than 25 percent of its value at the beginning 
of 2000, long-term stockholders have made
large gains. Qualcomm stock sold for an adjusted price of $6.51 per share on 
Dec. 17, 1998. The stock closed Wednesday
at $49.32 per share. That amounts to an annual return of 50 percent.

Of course, those who sold at the January 2000 peak would have realized a far 
greater return.

Qualcomm stock is up 35 percent for the year. On Jan. 2, the year's first 
trading day, it closed at $36.91.

Contact staff writer Bradley J. Fikes at bfikes@xxxxxxxxxxx or (760) 739-6641

SOURCE: North County Times, CA


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