Giving Matters | Minnesota Medical Foundation

Targeting brain cancer

2012-11-26T15:59:41Z

Gift supports U doctors’ novel vaccine therapy

Betty Jayne Dahlberg of Deephaven, Minn., has seen the devastating effects of brain cancer firsthand. Her late son-in-law, James “Jimmy” Disbrow, lived with glioblastoma for four years before he died in 2002 at age 54.

Disbrow suffered a great deal in those four years—despite valiant attempts to arrest his cancer through experimental therapies. He was an award-winning figure skater, a career he pursued until 1982, when he founded the Buffalo Wild Wings restaurant company with his brother.

Dahlberg says she does not want others to endure a similar ordeal, and she has a special concern for children who suffer from brain cancer.

That’s not surprising, considering she has seven grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.

“I’m crazy about my grandchildren,” she says. “I can’t imagine how horrible it would be for one of them to deal with something that can’t be cured, because I saw what Jimmy went through. And he was an adult.”

Those concerns inspired Dahlberg to donate $1 million through Children’s Cancer Research Fund to support novel brain cancer research at the University of Minnesota. Her gift will establish the Kenneth and Betty Jayne Dahlberg Professorship, which soon will be awarded to pediatric neuro-oncologist Christopher Moertel, M.D., clinical director of the University’s Pediatric Brain Tumor Program and a member of the Masonic Cancer Center, University of Minnesota.

The endowment is named after Betty Jayne and her late husband, Kenneth. The highly decorated World War II flying ace and successful businessman passed away last October. He founded the Miracle Ear Hearing Aid Company, which developed one of the first hearing aids to fit inside the ear. After selling the company in the 1990s, he became a venture capitalist—making one of his earliest investments in Buffalo Wild Wings.

“My husband and I are giving the money,” Dahlberg says of the professorship. “He’s the one who worked hard and made the money, and I supported him. He’d be thrilled with this gift. Absolutely.”

Advancing brain vaccine research

Moertel says the gift will support several aspects of his own and his colleagues’ work, including leading-edge research on vaccines to target three types of brain cancer that afflict both adults and children: medulloblastoma, ependymoma, and glioblastoma.

Vaccines are well known as protective agents against infectious diseases, such as polio, measles, and hepatitis. They work by stimulating immune systems to fight off germs that could lead to these diseases.

Now, Moertel and his scientist colleague John Ohlfest, Ph.D., are investigating a different way to use vaccines — to treat, rather than prevent, brain cancer, a non-communicable illness. Despite the different objective, vaccines used to treat brain cancer work on a similar principle as preventive vaccines; the idea is to coax patients’ own immune systems to attack and kill brain tumor cells.

The hope is that this selective targeting will one day be an alternative to chemo- and radiation therapies, which often come with toxic, debilitating side effects.

Ohlfest, director of the neurosurgery department’s Gene Therapy Program and holder of the Hedberg Family/Children’s Cancer Research Fund Endowed Chair in Brain Tumor Research, helped develop a new vaccine that was first used about three years ago to treat dogs with brain cancer. The success of the animal trial paved the way for clinical trials in humans, including an 18-month trial conducted under Moertel’s guidance that was completed this past June.

The recently finished trial involved eight adults who received a vaccine developed by Ohlfest that included dendritic cells extracted from each patient’s blood. When returned to each patient’s body, this “personalized” vaccine made cancer cells more readily recognizable and revved up the immune system to more aggressively attack the cancer cells.

Although their survival rate was not high, patients did respond to the vaccine, Moertel says. “We showed that some patients benefited; we saw their tumors shrink, and we found that promising.”

Setting their sights on a cure

Moertel and Ohlfest have just begun a second clinical trial. It will test a different vaccine preparation along with imiquimod, a cream produced by 3M under the name Aldara, which is spread on the skin and designed to excite certain parts of the immune system to work with the vaccine.

The first part of the second trial will enroll three adults with glioblastoma; the second part will treat 20 children with an incurable childhood cancer called brainstem glioma. “Our hope is that this vaccine will change the outcome for these [patients],” Moertel says.

He and his colleagues have set their sights high: They want to cure brain cancer. Betty Dahlberg’s gift will help them learn more and provide data that could attract additional foundation or government money to reach their lofty goal.

“It’s a great compliment to me and the people I work with to be recognized by the Dahlberg family,” Moertel says.

“Dr. Moertel and his team come highly recommended, so he must be capable of a breakthrough discovery,” concludes Dahlberg, adding a personal compliment: “He is one of the nicest doctors I’ve ever met.”

By Mary Vitcenda

To learn more about supporting pediatric brain cancer research at the University of Minnesota, contact Trudy Schrodt at 612-625-1897 or t.schrodt@mmf.umn.edu.

To make a gift, visit www.mmf.umn.edu/giveto/braincancer.

You can make a difference

Help the University of Minnesota save lives, inspire hope, and prepare the world’s future health care leaders. Make a gift today.

Because with your support, anything is possible.

Seeking brilliance

2012-11-26T15:58:50Z

Gift will help attract an innovative Parkinson’s disease researcher

When Leaetta Hough talks about her late mother, Hazel Hough, she emphasizes the courage and grace with which she endured the debilitating effects of Parkinson’s disease for more than 35 years.

That’s why, when Hough asked her mother what she would like done in her honor after her death, she rejected the idea of having a building named for her in her hometown of Bagley, Minn. Instead, Hazel supported Hough’s proposal to contribute money to Parkinson’s disease research at the University of Minnesota.

The daughter has honored those wishes, recently giving $800,000 to establish an endowed professorship in the Department of Neurology, chaired by Jerrold Vitek, M.D., Ph.D., an internationally renowned neurologist.

Befitting Hazel Hough’s character, the endowment is simply named “Innovative Research in Parkinson’s Disease.” The objective is to encourage others to contribute to the fund, as well. “She would have liked that,” says Hough, who is a nationally recognized industrial/organizational psychologist.

The $800,000 contribution comes from Hough and her late husband, Marvin Dunnette, a University of Minnesota psychology professor whose former students joined with her to fund a distinguished chair in the Department of Psychology in his honor. She is now married to Robert Muschewske, a retired psychologist and management consultant.

Recognizing an effective leader

As president of the Dunnette Group in St. Paul, Hough specializes in identifying, understanding, and measuring the characteristics that enable people to perform their work — especially creative work — effectively.

“I know the importance of individuals in achieving innovative, successful outcomes,” she says. “Individuals who foster creativity and innovation in others are unusual. Dr. Vitek is that kind of person, and I want our gift to make a difference.”

There is no known cure for Parkinson’s disease. Currently available treatments aim to control symptoms through medications or surgery — the focus of Vitek’s team. Working with colleagues from many disciplines, the team conducts research on surgical therapies for Parkinson’s and related diseases.

Vitek himself has done pioneering work on a surgical therapy called deep brain stimulation (DBS), which delivers electrical impulses directly to areas of the brain that control movement. DBS can act as a substitute for, or a complement to, medications — providing some Parkinson’s patients with “peace and calm after a lifetime of unrest and muscle tension,” he says.

Another promising technique for easing Parkinson’s symptoms is optogenetics, a form of gene therapy that uses light to alter brain cell activity.

Finding the right person for the job

The person hired to fill the endowed professorship will be tapped to help Vitek’s team improve these treatments, or even come up with something entirely new. Vitek says Hough’s donation provides a solid base to attract a “brilliant” physician-scientist to his team.

“We want someone who isn’t afraid to try new things, and who cares about people — someone who’s driven by the science of discovery and the passion to make a difference in patients’ lives,” Vitek says. “Leaetta’s gift is a big step toward finding that person.”

By Mary Vitcenda

To learn more about supporting Parkinson’s disease research at the University of Minnesota, contact Tracy Ketchem at 612-625-1906 or t.ketchem@mmf.umn.edu.

To make a gift, visit www.mmf.umn.edu/giveto/parkinsonsresearch.

You can make a difference

Help the University of Minnesota save lives, inspire hope, and prepare the world’s future health care leaders. Make a gift today.

Because with your support, anything is possible.

Reducing risk

2012-11-26T15:57:08Z

Bentson Foundation gift will support infectious disease prevention

Attention-grabbing specters like bubonic plague, Ebola, or the slim possibility of anthrax attacks make for compelling headlines, and the University of Minnesota’s Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy (CIDRAP) keeps tabs on all of these — along with other nightmarish, if distant, threats.

Recently, CIDRAP has made headlines for its work on a more familiar, yet potentially devastating, peril: influenza. In the past few months, the center has weighed in on the possible dangers of the H5N1 man-made flu virus and investigated the H3N2 swine flu virus. It has also released a major new report on the efficacy of seasonal flu vaccines and the urgent need to improve them.

Now, thanks to a $1.5 million gift from the Bentson Foundation, CIDRAP will be able to enhance efforts to prevent infectious diseases, emerging and familiar.

Proportional response

While CIDRAP monitors scores of other important issues, from hantavirus to smallpox, its priorities are governed by the principle of proportional response, says Michael Osterholm, Ph.D., M.P.H., CIDRAP director and professor in the School of Public Health.

“What kills us vs. what hurts us vs. what worries us vs. what scares the hell out of us — often these can all be very different,” says Osterholm. “Our job is to try to make sense out of that, and to try to put the emphasis on what can hurt us or kill us.”

Calling on sound science to educate the public, industry, and policymakers about looming health threats is central to CIDRAP’s mission. That education can take place on the airwaves of national news outlets (Osterholm is a frequently called-upon expert), through CIDRAP-hosted conferences, and in one-on-one discussions with government and business leaders. More than ever, that education is happening online.

Gift to enable website revamp, enhance outreach

The Bentson Foundation gift is targeted broadly to outreach, and “a major component of that is our web presence,” says Aaron Desmond, CIDRAP’s associate director for outreach and development. The gift will enable a revamp and integration of CIDRAP’s websites, which are accessed by users around the globe (a third are from outside the United States) who work in clinical care, academia, the private sector, government agencies, and groups such as the World Health Organization. Each year more than a million pages on CIDRAP’s sites are accessed.

“I’m proud of the work we’ve done to establish CIDRAP as a trusted source for public health reporting throughout the world,” says Osterholm. “Our staff … provides scientifically sound, up-to-the- moment content on critical issues.”

The gift will also allow CIDRAP to further develop its use of social media and other online tools for outreach, says Bentson Foundation executive director Judi Dutcher.

And it may boost in-person outreach efforts, including summits on topics deemed critical by Osterholm and CIDRAP staff. “We wanted to give them as much flexibility as possible,” Dutcher says.

University of Minnesota graduates Larry and Nancy Bentson formed the Bentson Foundation in 1956 to advance a variety of philanthropic causes. Over the years, the foundation has donated $9 million to the University, including a recent gift for a new School of Nursing teaching lab.

With its history of support for the University, and having long recognized Osterholm as an international “thought leader,” the foundation saw CIDRAP as a natural fit, Dutcher says.

“We’re becoming a very close global community … the fact that we have this center that is a leader in addressing emerging public health threats is a testament to the University,” she says. “We’re excited to see what’s going to be accomplished.”

By Susan Maas

To learn more, contact Adam Buhr at 612-626-2391 or a.buhr@mmf.umn.edu.

Visit www.mmf.umn.edu/giveto/cidrapoutreach to make a gift.

CIDRAP outreach by the numbers

The Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy reaches a global audience with original, authoritative, and timely news and analysis focused on emerging infectious diseases. Statistics from the last year demonstrate its reach:

Main website

1,071,891
page views

417,697
visitors

467
original published news articles

7,000
pages

Other channels

5,291
Daily News Headlines email subscribers

1,796
Twitter followers

To learn more, contact Adam Buhr at 612-626-2391 or a.buhr@mmf.umn.edu.

Visit www.mmf.umn.edu/giveto/cidrapoutreach to make a gift.

You can make a difference

Help the University of Minnesota save lives, inspire hope, and prepare the world’s future health care leaders. Make a gift today.

Because with your support, anything is possible.

Endowed chair advances cancer therapeutics

2012-11-26T15:56:51Z

Cancer was a topic of immediate concern to Roger and Lynn Headrick in the 1990s when John Kersey, M.D., asked them to help fund a new cancer research center at the University of Minnesota. A former executive with Exxon, Pillsbury, and the Minnesota Vikings, Roger Headrick had recently joined the boards of two California biotech companies that were examining the links between genetics and cancer.

But the couple’s connection was intensely personal, too: Lynn’s mother had died of ovarian cancer, and their son Mark had been diagnosed with testicular cancer when he was in his 20s. “So we were very interested — for personal reasons and other reasons — in cancer,” Roger Headrick says.

Financial support from the Headricks helped launch what’s now the Masonic Cancer Center, University of Minnesota in 1991. But they also wanted to support research that wasn’t happening anywhere else.

“I said to John Kersey, ‘We would like to do something that’s unique,’” Roger Headrick recalls. So the couple pledged $1 million to establish the Roger L. and Lynn C. Headrick Family Chair in Cancer Therapeutics, supporting an emerging field.

Traveling the road to discovery

Breakthroughs in cancer therapy aren’t just about novel discoveries. The road from laboratory discovery to patient care is long and fraught with potential complications. “Basic researchers aren’t physicians and don’t know how to bring what they’ve discovered into clinical trials,” says Jeffrey Miller, M.D., who holds the Headrick chair.

The endowed position has allowed Miller, a professor of hematology, oncology, and transplantation, to create teams of people who can usher a novel idea from the lab, through the regulatory process, and ultimately into patient testing and successful treatments. Four years ago, Miller established the Cancer Experimental Therapeutics Initiative (CETI), which brings together scientists, research nurses, regulatory staff, protocol writers, and other specialists to do just that.

“Testing safety in patients is complicated, Miller says. “It’s so much more than a single person can do in the current regulatory environment.”

Miller has relied on CETI to help him translate basic blood research into cancer treatments. Two decades ago, he began investigating white blood cells — specifically, lymphocytes known as natural killer cells (or NK cells) — as a possible vehicle for attacking cancer.

Such cells could be propagated in the lab, he theorized, and then reintroduced to the human body along with an immune-stimulating drug, interleukin-2 (IL-2), to attack malignant cells.

Initial tests seemed promising, but Miller soon realized that IL-2 tended to increase suppressor T-cells in some patients. That inhibited the proliferation of NK cells, making them ineffective as a cancer-fighting weapon.

Additional research indicated that another drug, IL-15, was less likely to stimulate suppressor T-cells. With the assistance of the CETI team, Miller has shepherded his research into clinical trials in patients with advanced leukemia and for whom standard therapy hasn’t worked.

“We are also testing NK cell therapy in patients with lymphoma, breast cancer, and ovarian cancer,” says Miller, adding that each cancer may react differently to NK cell therapy.

Pursuing the most promising avenues

Other researchers have made use of CETI’s processes and protocols, too. But Miller is careful to point out that the initiative focuses on only the most promising ideas for fighting cancer. “We don’t want to do incremental discovery,” he says. “If it’s not going to be of high enough impact, we shouldn’t be investing in it.”

Roger and Lynn Headrick say they’re pleased to see their gift applied to such high-potential projects. “We’re totally impressed with Jeff Miller and his passion, innovation, and creativity,” Lynn Headrick says. “We’re very happy that new things are going to come out of the University of Minnesota that will help solve the problems of cancer.”

Mark Headrick ultimately underwent chemotherapy and survived testicular cancer. Now in his late 40s and the father of five children, he is cancer-free. His parents are grateful — and happy that their gift is advancing research that will help other cancer patients experience the same positive outcome.

By Joel Hoekstra

To learn more about supporting cancer research at the University of Minnesota, contact Cathy Spicola at 612-625-5192 or c.spicola@mmf.umn.edu.

Visit www.mmf.umn.edu/cancer to make a gift.

You can make a difference

Help the University of Minnesota save lives, inspire hope, and prepare the world’s future health care leaders. Make a gift today.

Because with your support, anything is possible.

Minnesota Masons adopt a special room

2012-11-26T15:55:32Z

The Grand Lodge of Minnesota and Minnesota Masonic Charities have jointly sponsored an Adopt A Room at University of Minnesota Amplatz Children’s Hospital, continuing the Masons’ decades-long commitment to improving children’s health.

More like home

Adopt A Rooms, customized private rooms designed for kids and their families, help improve outcomes and accelerate healing at the new Amplatz Children’s Hospital.

Gifts to Adopt A Room will equip and enhance patient rooms today and sustain those rooms for decades to come.

To learn more, contact Elizabeth Patty at 612-625-6136 or e.patty@mmf.umn.edu.

Adopt A Room Videos

Inside an adopt a room

Masons Adopt A Room dedication

You can make a difference

Help the University of Minnesota save lives, inspire hope, and prepare the world’s future health care leaders. Make a gift today.

Because with your support, anything is possible.

Grief, grace, and giving

2012-11-26T15:54:39Z

Couple’s gift enables medical students to learn, serve abroad

Russ Scheffler enjoyed medical students. For the two-and-a- half years he lived with cancer of the appendix, he befriended, quizzed, and “tormented” several of them, recalls his wife, Kathy. He recognized the teaching value of his illness, and welcomed the presence of aspiring physicians in the room.

“He liked all the attention, he liked that interaction,” Kathy Scheffler says. When his University of Minnesota surgeon, Todd Tuttle, M.D., mentioned plans to bring a student on an upcoming medical mission trip to Honduras, Russ offered to pay for the student’s trip. That was news to Kathy, but she loved the idea.

A blended gift with global impact

Although that trip was canceled because of a logistical snafu, the seed had been planted for a legacy that would soon have global impact. “During that process, my husband’s health kept declining. I think he was feeling like, ‘How do I give something back?’” Scheffler says.

The couple spoke with Tuttle about creating a scholarship fund that would allow him to bring two second-year medical students abroad each year on surgical mission trips. They spent the summer of 2011 setting up a blended gift — an outright gift and a planned contribution.

The Scheffler International Medical Mission Trip Award began with a $5,000-per-year donation that grew through a life-insurance policy and memorial gifts upon Russ’s passing. At press time, more than $32,000 had been donated to the fund — including $500 in proceeds from a garage sale organized by the 11-year-old daughter of close family friends.

“Russ always looked for that unique need that he felt wasn’t being met,” Scheffler says. “This was right up his alley.”

A ‘passion for international medicine’

Tuttle says he is glad to see more opportunities for surgeons who want to volunteer abroad. “I also wanted to use these experiences to help train surgeons — maybe inspire someone to make international medicine more of a career.”

This summer, he elected to bring the first two Scheffler scholarship recipients to Nuestros Pequenos Hermanos (NPH), an orphanage and clinic outside Tegucigalpa, the Honduran capital. “We wanted somebody with a passion for international medicine,” Tuttle says, and Allison Bradee and Greg Carlson fit the bill.

Bradee, who majored in Spanish and has volunteered in Mexico and the Dominican Republic, says she won’t soon forget the gratitude of the Honduran patients she met. Many could not afford to pay upfront for medical care and simply wouldn’t have been treated without the NPH team.

The weeklong trip was incredibly rewarding, says Carlson, who had previously volunteered in Peru and Tanzania. So was the opportunity to meet Kathy Scheffler, who was committed to seeing firsthand the vision for the scholarship fulfilled. At one particularly emotional point toward the trip’s end, she shared her husband’s story with Carlson and Bradee.

“It’s really inspiring to me that she was able to go and do this,” Carlson says. “It made me feel like I can’t let her down.”

The trip affirmed Carlson’s resolve to incorporate international volunteerism into his medical practice someday.

“I wasn’t doing it as a résumé-builder; this is something I can see myself doing for the rest of my life.”

By Susan Maas

To learn more about creating a planned gift at the University of Minnesota, contact Jay Kautt, J.D., at 612-626-0510 or j.kautt@mmf.umn.edu.

You can make a difference

Help the University of Minnesota save lives, inspire hope, and prepare the world’s future health care leaders. Make a gift today.

Because with your support, anything is possible.

Stocking stuffers

2012-11-26T15:53:33Z

Securities can make great gifts

The bull market of 2012 raises an intriguing question for those with investments: What is the most beneficial gift I can donate to the Minnesota Medical Foundation? In terms of taxes, the answer is securities that 1) have gone up in value and 2) have been owned for more than one year.

Supporters who give highly appreciated stocks receive a double tax benefit that enables them to magnify the impact of their generosity: They can deduct the full fair market value of their investment — not just what they paid originally — and they save again by avoiding all capital gains taxes on their “paper profit.”

Taking stock

Take the example of Mrs. Jones. The stock she purchased in 1995 for $200 is now worth $1,000. If Mrs. Jones gives the stock instead of cash, the Minnesota Medical Foundation receives a gift of $1,000 — the fair market value of the stock — and she can claim a $1,000 charitable deduction on her next income tax return.

In the 33 percent bracket, that’s a tax savings of $330. Furthermore, she avoids $120 in capital gains taxes that would be due whenever she sold the stock. The result: After figuring her tax savings, a gift of $1,000 costs Mrs. Jones only $550.

Mutually beneficial

Mutual fund shares can be given to the foundation with the same beneficial effect as listed and actively traded stock. Your deduction is the “net asset value” of the shares, which is calculated each day, generally after the close of the stock market. If you decide to contribute mutual fund shares, please notify us as soon as possible and send us a copy of your mutual fund statement. Transfers can take from two to six weeks to complete, and we will need to work with you and your account manager to make the gift effective for the current year.

To find out how you can make a planned gift that supports medical and health-related research, education, and care at the University of Minnesota, please contact the Minnesota Medical Foundation’s planned giving team at 612-625-1440, 800-922-1663, or giftplanning@mmf.umn.edu.

You can make a difference

Help the University of Minnesota save lives, inspire hope, and prepare the world’s future health care leaders. Make a gift today.

Because with your support, anything is possible.

Who gets the life insurance?

2012-11-26T15:52:49Z

Examine your life insurance policies and take a look at who is named beneficiary. Chances are it’s your spouse or other family members, but if a beneficiary isn’t named, the proceeds will go to your estate. There are several reasons why you don’t want that to happen:

The proceeds could be subject to state death taxes,
Creditors of your estate would have access to the funds,
Probate fees could be increased, and
Distribution of proceeds could be delayed until administration of your estate is complete.

Make sure you have named a beneficiary for the proceeds. Keep in mind that you can name the Minnesota Medical Foundation as a primary or contingent beneficiary of your life insurance, in the event that a named beneficiary is not alive at your death.

To learn more, please contact the Minnesota Medical Foundation’s planned giving team at 612-625-1440, 800-922-1663, or giftplanning@mmf.umn.edu.

You can make a difference

Help the University of Minnesota save lives, inspire hope, and prepare the world’s future health care leaders. Make a gift today.

Because with your support, anything is possible.

Scholarship aims to draw new doctors back to their rural roots

2012-11-26T15:51:54Z

For most students, committing to medical school comes with a hefty price tag, the weight of which can be overwhelming.

Enter Avera Marshall. For six years, the regional medical center in southwestern Minnesota has been working to lift that weight in hopes of inspiring future doctors to return to the area.

The key word is “return.” That’s because Avera Marshall’s generous scholarships are granted to first-year medical students who hail from Marshall, Minn., and its surrounding counties. Yet, there are no strings attached.

“There is no payback, no commitment — this is purely a gift,” says Karrie Schipper, physician recruiter for the Avera Medical Group. “When medical students complete medical school and residency, the average amount of their loans is $160,000. We’re hoping that this scholarship is a start toward relieving this daunting amount.”

One scholarship — based on financial need, as well as GPA and a personal letter — is awarded each year to a student at the University of Minnesota Medical School, Duluth campus, which specializes in training doctors in rural medical care.

The selected recipient receives $12,000 for the first year of medical school, then $4,000 each year after that, dependent on academic performance, for a total of $24,000. (Avera Marshall annually awards an identical scholarship to a student at the University of South Dakota’s medical school in Vermillion.)

Yet the scholarship is just the beginning. “One of the scholarship’s advantages is that I’ve gotten to know Schipper and Mary Maertens [president and CEO of Avera Marshall] very well,” says scholarship recipient Jonna Maas, a third-year medical student from Walnut Grove, Minn. Through emails, phone calls, annual scholarship dinners, and more, Maas interacts regularly with Avera Marshall physicians and administrators — many of whom she got to know during a summer internship as an undergraduate at the University of Minnesota, Morris.

“Jonna is a perfect role model for what we look for in a physician,” says Schipper. “She’s got one of those magnetic personalities. She’s kind and compassionate and has Midwestern values. She also grew up on a cattle farm in rural Minnesota and got to experience rural health care, and she wants an opportunity to give back to the rural area. She’s a phenomenal person, and she’ll do well no matter where she goes.”

Of course, the staff at Avera Marshall hopes she’ll return to the area. Schipper points out that the United States is facing a serious shortage of primary care and rural physicians and that attracting new doctors to the area is crucial.

“We offer competitive compensation packages and the lifestyle many new physicians are looking for,” she says. “When you’re on call in a rural community, you can go home and sleep in your own bed.”

Avera Marshall offers an additional incentive: For doctors who sign on with the medical center, they often offer loan forgiveness, certainly a draw for up-and-coming physicians like Maas.

In the meantime, Maas is grateful for her scholarship. “The reality is that medical school is expensive, and there is no time to work a job and no summers off,” she says. “It’s very humbling to know I have support from Avera Marshall. It’s such an honor and so appreciated.”

By Karin Miller

To learn more about creating a scholarship at the University of Minnesota Medical School, contact Teri McIntyre at 612-625-5976 or t.mcintyre@mmf.umn.edu.

To make a gift, visit www.mmf.umn.edu/giveto/medicalstudents.

You can make a difference

Help the University of Minnesota save lives, inspire hope, and prepare the world’s future health care leaders. Make a gift today.

Because with your support, anything is possible.

Getting involved

2012-11-26T15:50:17Z

Calendar of events | Winter-Spring 2013

Diamond Awards

January 24, 2013
Target Field, Minneapolis

This star-studded baseball charity event includes a televised awards dinner featuring current and former Minnesota Twins, rare baseball memorabilia at a silent auction, and much more. Proceeds support the University of Minnesota’s innovative research and patient care in ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease), ataxia, multiple sclerosis, muscular dystrophy, and Parkinson’s disease.

Like Diamond Awards on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.

For more information, contact events@mmf.umn.edu or 612-624-4444 or visit www.minnesotadiamondawards.org.

Red Hot Soirée

April 6, 2013
The Depot, Minneapolis

Attend this gala event to benefit the Lillehei Heart Institute at the University of Minnesota and raise awareness about cardiovascular disease research.

For more information, contact Maureen McDonough at 651-303-9036 or momcdonough@comcast.net or visit z.umn.edu/rhsoiree.

Goldy’s Run

April 13, 2013
TCF Bank Stadium, University of Minnesota

Join thousands of runners as they weave through campus and along the Mississippi River, with a spectacular finish on the TCF Bank Stadium football field—all to support University of Minnesota Amplatz Children’s Hospital.

For more information visit http://www.goldysrun.com or contact Nick Engbloom at 612-626-8429 or n.engbloom@mmf.umn.edu.

WineFest No. 18—A Toast to Children’s Health

May 10-11, 2013
The Depot, Minneapolis

Enjoy this two-day fete featuring Spain’s award-winning Vibrant Rioja wines, gourmet fare, one-of-a-kind auction lots, and rousing entertainment. The celebration starts Friday with the Grand Tasting, which offers signature menu selections from top Twin Cities’ restaurants and more than 400 wines for sampling. Saturday’s Fine Wine Dinner begins with a champagne reception and silent auction. Proceeds benefit University of Minnesota Amplatz Children’s Hospital, which proudly claims many world firsts in pediatric medicine.

Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.

For more information, visit www.thewinefest.org or contact Nick Engbloom at 612-626-8429 or n.engbloom@mmf.umn.edu.

Champions for Children Golf Tournament

June 10, 2013
Windsong Farm Golf Club, Independence, Minn.

Hosted by Minnesota Viking John Sullivan, this annual event includes 18 holes of golf, a cart, lunch, oncourse food and beverages, a deluxe player gift package, and dinner. Your foursome will be joined by a celebrity golfer.

For more information, contact Nick Engbloom at 612-626-8429 or n.engbloom@mmf.umn.edu.

Golf Classic “Fore” Diabetes Research

June 17, 2013
Town and Country Club, St. Paul, Minn.

This annual benefit supports diabetes research at the University of Minnesota and includes morning and afternoon rounds, a live auction, and lunch and dinner programs.

For more information, contact Katie Mae Pritchard at 612-625-5682 or kmp@mmf.umn.edu.

You can make a difference

Help the University of Minnesota save lives, inspire hope, and prepare the world’s future health care leaders. Make a gift today.

Because with your support, anything is possible.

Meeting the challenge

2012-06-07T23:42:00Z

Dads’ $450,000 matching gift supports novel research on devastating skin disease

As a pediatric oncologist, Jakub Tolar, M.D., Ph.D., sees tragedy every day. But little compares with the heartbreak he sees working with children who have epidermolysis bullosa (EB), a fatal disease that can cause the skin to slough off at even the slightest touch.

“This is one of the most awful diseases I’ve ever seen,” Tolar says.

While missing patches of skin are one of the most outwardly apparent signs of the disease, they’re only part of the complex difficulties these children and their families face.

With an esophagus full of lesions, it becomes painful to eat. And because of the body’s constant but flawed efforts to repair itself, fingers can fuse together.

Eventually, usually by age 20, these children will die of skin cancer.

But not if Tolar has his way. A member of the pioneering University of Minnesota team offering promising but risky blood and marrow transplants aimed at curing the disease, he is now focused on finding a safer alternative (see sidebar).

“It is high-intensity, potentially high-yield, very novel research,” Tolar says.

That’s exactly what got Paul Joseph at the Epidermolysis Bullosa Medical Research Foundation and Alex Silver at the Jackson Gabriel Silver Foundation behind the project. Together the two foundations will contribute up to $450,000 to Tolar’s work — matching gifts from other donors dollar for dollar. The University’s Medical School and Department of Pediatrics each already have contributed generously to the match, but there is still $16,402 left to raise.

Joseph and Silver have personal motivation for making sure this research prospers. Joseph’s 8-year-old son, Brandon, and Silver’s 4-year-old son, Jackson, both were born with EB.

Everyday life with EB can be complicated. At times, even simple activities like walking and taking a bath can be agonizing because of constant open wounds.

“Some days are hard, but Jackson’s indomitable spirit is an inspiration to everyone around him,” Silver says.

Brandon Joseph, who is now in grade school, is adjusting to the fact that he’s different from other kids who get to play sports on the weekend, his dad says.

“[Brandon] is a good reader, and he’s a bright kid. He’s very inquisitive,” says his dad. That means that he often has “big life questions” — why this is happening to him, why no one can make the EB go away — that are downright impossible for his parents to answer.

Joseph and Silver are hoping that, with a little help, they’ll give Tolar the resources to cure EB. With Tolar’s drive and the right financial support, Joseph and Silver are confident that this research will improve the lives of children who have EB and related skin diseases.

“The best gift we can give Jackson and any child with EB,” Silver says, “is a chance at having a good and pain-free life.”

By Nicole Endres

Thanks to the generosity of Children’s Cancer Research Fund, Frances and Leonard Spira, Pioneering Unique Cures for Kids, and many other donors, we are now more than 90 percent of our way to our goal. Help us meet the challenge by doubling your gift to breakthrough EB research today. Contribute to the match at www.mmf.umn.edu/giveto/eb1.

Contribute to the match at www.mmf.umn.edu/giveto/eb1 or by contacting Courtney Billing at 612-626-1931 or c.billing@mmf.umn.edu.

Double the impact of your gift with the EB match

We did it! Watch for more details soon.

Help us change the face of EB

Make your gift now or contact Courtney Billing at 612-626-1931 or c.billing@mmf.umn.edu for more information.

Dr. Tolar’s fight against EB

Watch a video featuring a Sun Prairie, Wis. boy suffering from epidermolysis bullosa (EB) who is undergoing breakthrough treatment from Dr. Tolar at University of Minnesota Amplatz Children’s Hospital.

Epidermolysis bullosa awareness week

Jakub Tolar, M.D., Ph.D. shares a special message thank you message to EB donors and research supporters during Epidermolysis Bullosa Awareness Week. Watch the video now.

Making a pioneering treatment safer

In a clinical trial almost five years ago, University of Minnesota transplant pioneers John Wagner, M.D., and Jakub Tolar, M.D., Ph.D., performed the world’s first blood and marrow transplant (BMT) for treating epidermolysis bullosa (EB).

Though BMTs have improved life for 11 of the 20 kids treated so far, Tolar says, the procedure is risky because of the chemotherapy needed before it and the chance the body will reject the cells transplanted from someone else.

That’s why his newest research is focused on finding a safer alternative.

One approach, dubbed “natural gene therapy,” would use healthy skin that is present on some children with EB to create stem cells in the lab that would then be given back to the patients to grow more healthy skin.

A different “seamless gene therapy” approach would involve “cutting” the DNA of faulty skin cells in the lab and using the corrected cells to create stem cells that would be given back to the patient.

These experimental techniques should eliminate the rejection risk normally associated with transplants because patients are essentially receiving transplants of their own cells, Tolar says.

These techniques also have the potential to help heal burns and treat autoimmune diseases of the skin. And the concept — modifying a patient’s own cells to mend or prevent damage — could be applied to repair other organs, he says.

You can make a difference

Help the University of Minnesota save lives, inspire hope, and prepare the world’s future health care leaders. Make a gift today.

Because with your support, anything is possible.

A model of innovation

2012-06-07T22:59:38Z

Discovery district’s plaza honors longtime U ambassador

Carl N. Platou, M.H.A., was an unwavering optimist. He was also an accomplished health care innovator, a consummate people person, and a decorated veteran who survived World War II against staggering odds. His unique relationship with the University of Minnesota spanned more than 70 years, and the Biomedical Discovery District now coming to fruition on the East Bank campus is tangible proof of his tenacity.

Platou advocated for years to secure the state bonding authorization needed to break ground for the district. He then turned to raising the private dollars needed to equip and populate the cluster of research facilities just north of TCF Bank Stadium.

With the completion of the cancer and cardiovascular research building in 2013, the Biomedical Discovery District will become home to nearly 1,000 faculty and staff working in 700,000 square feet of collaborative research space.

In recognition of Platou’s role in creating this economy-boosting incubator for new ideas and discoveries, the district’s gateway plaza was named in his honor at a groundbreaking celebration on May 9. Twenty days later, Platou died of pancreatic cancer.

Very serious stuff

Platou liked to poke fun at himself by recalling his disastrous debut as a freshman at the University. Inspired by four uncles, all of them physicians, he dreamed of becoming a doctor. But at the end of his first term, he had a rude awakening. “I got three Ds, an F, and an incomplete,” he recalled.

“My uncle Erling said, ‘Maybe you should be a hospital administrator.’”

It was 1943. Instead of changing majors, Platou joined the paratroops and was shipped to the Pacific as a demolition expert. “Very serious stuff,” he noted in a recent interview. “Out of a hundred of us who started, 10 lived.”

When Platou returned to the University in 1945, he earned a degree in social psychology in three years. “In those days you were so glad to be alive, you just studied all the time,” he said. Then he earned a master’s degree in hospital administration from the School of Public Health — one of the first awarded by the University. Soon after, in 1952, he accepted an administrative position at Fairview Hospital.

Platou quickly rose to president and CEO and continued to serve in that capacity until he retired in 1988. He saw the potential for transformative change early in his career and eventually grew Fairview from a single hospital into a fully integrated regional health care system that became a model for innovation nationwide.

Platou’s association with the University was rekindled in 2005 when he was named senior adviser to the dean of the Medical School. He helped create the Dean’s Board of Visitors, an advisory council made up of community leaders, and was the driving force behind the board’s efforts to promote the concept of the biomedical research district to state policymakers.

“Carl has a real knack for bringing people together, for engaging the right people at the right time to get something done,” Walter Mondale, a member of the board, wrote in a letter supporting the naming of the discovery district’s Platou Plaza. “Carl has built bridges between civic leaders, the business community, higher education, and state government, and together we have accomplished a great thing that none of us could have accomplished alone.”

By Kristine Mortensen

You can make a difference

Help the University of Minnesota save lives, inspire hope, and prepare the world’s future health care leaders. Make a gift today.

Because with your support, anything is possible.

Return on investment

2012-06-07T21:29:31Z

Family honors parents with gift supporting U’s pancreatic cancer research

When it comes to nasty diseases, pancreatic cancer has few rivals.

“It’s the worst cancer known,” says Ashok Saluja, Ph.D., professor and vice chair of research in the University of Minnesota’s Department of Surgery. “More than 44,000 Americans will be diagnosed with it this year, and almost as many will die. It’s hard to catch early, and there’s no good treatment.”

But Saluja, a member of the University’s Masonic Cancer Center and one of the world’s foremost researchers of pancreatic diseases, has found the first real ray of hope for treating this formidable cancer.

He and his University colleagues have developed a potent compound called Minnelide that disarms pancreatic cancer cells in mice. In one mouse study, 21 days of Minnelide treatment made large tumors undetectable.

A welcome gift

This breakthrough research received a boost recently, thanks to a gift from the family of businessman Eugene Sit, who died of pancreatic cancer four years ago.

Born in China in 1938, Sit arrived in the United States as a 10-year-old who knew no English. But he finished 12 years of schooling in eight and, with the support of his wife, Gail, graduated from DePaul University in Chicago.

Eugene Sit found his calling in the investment business. In 1981, at age 42, he launched Sit Investment Associates in Minneapolis. Today the firm manages more than $11 billion in assets.

Sit died in June 2008 at age 69. Besides Gail, he left six adult children, five of whom work for Sit Investment.

Active in his local community, Sit served on a number of nonprofit boards, including the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, the Minnesota Orchestral Association, Carleton College, and various boards at the University of Minnesota. In 2007, he received the University’s Hubert H. Humphrey Public Leadership Award.

Together, Gene and Gail Sit were dedicated to giving back to the community. An embodiment of their giving is the Minnesotans’ Military Appreciation Fund, a nonprofit they started in 2005 as a way to thank military service members and their families for serving our country.

In January 2012, the Sit siblings extended their parents’ public service legacy by establishing the Eugene C. and Gail V. Sit Chair in Pancreatic and Gastrointestinal Cancer Research at the University of Minnesota.

“We wanted to do this to honor our parents,” says eldest son Ron Sit. “Naming the chair for both seemed like a natural way to recognize their lifelong relationship.”

“Our parents impressed upon us that if one is fortunate, it is important that one give back,” adds daughter Debbie Sit.

Other donors to the new $2 million endowed chair include Stanley S. and Karen H. Hubbard and the Hubbard Broadcasting Foundation. Saluja is the chair’s first holder.

At the forefront

“I’m very proud to be named the first occupant of the chair,” Saluja says. “Eugene Sit was a remarkable business investor and philanthropist.

“I’m also proud that I am an immigrant like Mr. Sit,” adds Saluja, who is from Malout, India.

The Sit Chair will be a powerful weapon against pancreatic cancer and other gastrointestinal diseases, says Department of Surgery chair Selwyn Vickers, M.D. He and Saluja hope to test the drug in Phase I clinical trials — the first to involve humans — later this year.

“The gift recognizes the tremendous legacy of a couple who have had significant impact on our community,” says Vickers. “It speaks highly of Mr. and Mrs. Sit that their children would want to recognize their contributions to our community by providing a tremendous gift to fight this disease.”

By Deane Morrison

To support this work, please contact Cathy Spicola at 612-625-5192 or c.spicola@mmf.umn.edu, or visit www.mmf.umn.edu/giveto/minnelide1.

The path to Minnelide

1998 Ashok Saluja, Ph.D., studies pancreatitis at Harvard, where he and his colleagues discover that HSP 70 “heat shock” proteins, which normally protect cells from high temperatures, protect pancreatic cells from pancreatitis.

2004 The Saluja lab finds that HSP 70 levels are higher in pancreatic cancer cells, making the cells hard to destroy.

2005 Saluja and his colleagues discover that a compound called triptolide — used for centuries in China as a natural remedy for arthritis — inhibits HSP 70 in cancer cells. But triptolide is insoluble in water, limiting its use as a drug.

2006 Saluja joins the Department of Surgery at the University of Minnesota.

2009 Saluja’s group, Department of Medicinal Chemistry head Gunda Georg, Ph.D., and then-graduate student Satish Patil, Ph.D., make the compound water-soluble and christen it Minnelide (Minnesota + triptolide).

2010 The University files a patent for Minnelide.

2011 In preclinical tests, untreated mice implanted with human pancreatic cancer cells live a median of 36 days, compared with more than 390 days for Minnelide-treated mice.

Later this year Saluja’s team hopes to enroll patients in Phase I clinical trials.

You can make a difference

Help the University of Minnesota save lives, inspire hope, and prepare the world’s future health care leaders. Make a gift today.

Because with your support, anything is possible.

Visionary research

2012-06-07T20:49:39Z

Pediatric ophthalmologist leads first-ever albinism drug trial

There are top-notch researchers, and there are first-rate clinicians. But few doctors have both the scientific chops and the extraordinary bedside manner of pediatric ophthalmologist C. Gail Summers, M.D., says donor Michael Cohen.

Cohen’s in a position to know; he’s a physician himself. The Texas pathologist and his wife, Sandra Cohen, have made two $10,000 gifts to advance Summers’s work. Inspired by the superlative care she’s given their 15-year-old son, Matthew, the gifts are helping to support her current clinical trial, a study exploring a possible treatment for vision problems associated with albinism.

Like others with albinism, Matthew experiences vision difficulties stemming from underdevelopment in the central retina. While the degree of visual impairment in albinism varies (Matthew has oculocutaneous albinism type 2; individuals with this type don’t typically have white hair or eyelashes), it’s the aspect of albinism that poses the biggest challenge. Matthew — a typical teenager who’s into skiing, rock-climbing, and drawing — compensates for his vision difficulties in school by sitting near the front and using large-print materials.

His mother recalls the first time the family visited the Twin Cities for a consultation with Summers. Her clinic waiting room was the first place where Matthew was among kids with albinism, which made the whole family comfortable. Within minutes of meeting Summers, “we knew she was the right choice”— geography notwithstanding, says Sandra Cohen.

Matthew says he could tell immediately that Summers loves her job. “She spends time with each patient … and she’s always included me in the conversation,” he explains. Summers’s genuine warmth and empathy — traits the Florida native ascribes to her late father, a welder — just earned her the Leonard Tow Humanism in Medicine Award from the Gold Foundation.

Summers has studied albinism since arriving at the University in 1985. Along with her mentor, geneticist Richard King, M.D., Ph.D., she cofounded the University’s International Center for Albinism, which she now directs. Past president of the American Association for Pediatric Ophthalmology and Strabismus, she’s published numerous articles on albinism. Summers estimates that she’s seen some 500 patients with albinism over the decades, many Minnesotans as well as others from far-flung places like China, South Africa, and Greece.

The first-ever drug trial for albinism, her study aims to determine whether patients’ vision can be improved by using the substance L-Dopa (levodopa) to turn on a receptor in the retina. The work is supported by the Minnesota Lions Vision Foundation, the Heilmaier Foundation, and by generous individuals and families like the Cohens. Many donors, Summers says, are patients’ grandparents. “A lot of young families don’t have the funds to give, but the grandparents do.”

The precursor molecule for the neurotransmitters dopamine and adrenaline, L-Dopa is currently used to treat Parkinson’s disease. Two-thirds of the study subjects are receiving L-Dopa in liquid form, with the rest receiving a placebo; neither Summers nor the participants know who’s receiving which liquid.

Summers plans to enroll 45 participants in the 20-week, randomized, double-blind study; she has 34 so far, and 29 have already finished. Many of the participants are her own patients, with a handful traveling monthly from other Midwestern states. By this time next year, she hopes to have a better idea of the treatment’s potential. “I have some who are saying, ‘My vision’s better,’ but there’s no way to know yet,” she says.

Summers is cautiously excited about the possibility. “It might make a difference,” she says. But whatever the study’s outcome, she’s already doing that — making a difference — for young patients around the globe.

By Susan Maas

To learn more or to support albinism research at the University of Minnesota, contact Chuck Semrow at 612-624-6313 or c.semrow@mmf.umn.edu, or visit www.mmf.umn.edu/giveto/albinism1.

You can make a difference

Help the University of Minnesota save lives, inspire hope, and prepare the world’s future health care leaders. Make a gift today.

Because with your support, anything is possible.

Endowed funds grant intellectual freedom

2012-06-07T19:54:55Z

Elizabeth Seaquist, M.D., fell in love with the lab almost 40 years ago. She got her first taste of research working for four summers in the University of Minnesota laboratory of William Krivit, M.D., then head of the Department of Pediatrics, on a paid fellowship from the American Heart Association.

“I couldn’t have done this if I hadn’t gotten paid, because my parents had no money,” says the Minneapolis native, now a thriving member of the University faculty. “I had to earn money.”

Those paid fellowships are so rare now, Seaquist says, which is why she feels privileged to return the favor to students today using philanthropic funding from the Pennock Family Land Grant Chair in Diabetes Research, which she has held since 2002. “People need to know their work is valuable,” she says.

The late George and Jevne Pennock created the chair in memory of their daughter, Molly Pennock Eininger Lindeman, who died from complications of diabetes in 1984.

An endowed chair, the pinnacle of faculty achievement, generates flexible annual income that the chair holder can use at his or her discretion. Chair holders often use the funding to explore new ideas, gather preliminary data that may one day attract greater support from the National Institutes of Health, respond quickly to unforeseen research opportunities, or train students and fellows.

Seaquist has used the money from the Pennock Chair for many of these purposes, from paying students who work in her lab to growing a program to a point that she could attract major federal grants.

“It has allowed me to do so many different things,” she says.

But she fears that, without more flexible funding through philanthropy, the future of academic medicine is in jeopardy. Many funding agencies direct their money to one specific project, which can leave investigators scrambling to fill in the gaps between grants and doesn’t allow scientists the freedom to pursue exciting new research tacks.

That’s what makes her endowed chair such an asset, Seaquist says — it provides a steady funding stream that isn’t linked to just one project.

“It’s there to let someone be creative and do the work of a faculty member, which is to discover new knowledge, teach students, and not have to worry every minute about how you’re going to fund your salary and fund your lab,” she says. “It’s been an enormous, enormous blessing to have the endowed funds I’ve had.”

By Nicole Endres

To learn more about how your gift can make a difference in diabetes research, contact Jean Gorell at 612-625-0497 or j.gorell@mmf.umn.edu, or visit www.mmf.umn.edu/giveto/diabetes.

You can make a difference

Help the University of Minnesota save lives, inspire hope, and prepare the world’s future health care leaders. Make a gift today.

Because with your support, anything is possible.

Marketing in earnest

2012-06-07T18:07:38Z

U of M senior raises funds for cystic fibrosis research

University of Minnesota senior Nikolas Job wrapped up his academic year as a communications major and is beginning his third straight summer internship at a company he hopes to work for one day.

Hill-Rom, a medical technology firm, makes the chest-compression vest Job has used since childhood to manage his cystic fibrosis (CF). Not only has the company offered Job the chance to work in marketing, but it often sends him to speak to groups of physicians, nurses, and others about its products and his personal experience.

“When I graduate, I hope to get a job at Hill-Rom. They seem to like me,” he says modestly. What’s not to like? Job is not only affable and charming but a one-man fundraising powerhouse.

Six years ago, when Job was just 15 years old and played goalie for his Minnetonka High School hockey team, he and his father contacted artist Todd Miska to design two helmets — one for Job and one for a silent auction, raising $3,000 for CF research.

Since then the family has commissioned a new helmet design every year, raising about $50,000. It also hosted a golf tournament last summer that brought in $10,000, and the family plans to host another.

The funds raised through the Nikolas Job Foundation go to the University to support research and help CF families in need. “The U does remarkable research,” says Job. “The doctors work hard to find drugs to benefit everyone with CF.”

Job was diagnosed with CF at 6 months old and has received care at the Minnesota Cystic Fibrosis Center at the University ever since. “I always recommend that anyone with CF in Minnesota go to the U,” he says. “Everyone with CF should have doctors who care about them.”

On a recent trip to Costa Rica, Job saw firsthand that top-notch care isn’t available everywhere. He met a girl with CF who was nearly his age but looked about 12 and weighed less than 100 pounds. “Hopefully, the vests and medicines will help,” says Job, who represented Hill-Rom, distributing vests and $5 million worth of medicine.

Like many pediatric patients before him at the University, Job has transitioned to the U’s adult CF clinic. “The pediatric team does a great job of getting patients ready to make that leap,” says LyNette Rasmussen, his nurse practitioner. She adds that the two teams meet weekly to review patients, “so we’ve heard about these kids long before they come to the adult team, and that facilitates transition.”

Regarding Job, she says, “Nikolas is an energetic college student. I love seeing him — it’s exciting to keep track of where life is taking him.”

Next year, life will take Job to Denmark, where he’ll attend his father’s former college. Then, after one more year of college, he hopes to begin his marketing career in earnest. No doubt he’ll be making an impact on CF research wherever he lands.

You can make a difference

Help the University of Minnesota save lives, inspire hope, and prepare the world’s future health care leaders. Make a gift today.

Because with your support, anything is possible.

On-target cancer treatments

2012-06-07T17:26:52Z

A grateful patient supports technical training in radiology

Although Bob Johnson calls himself a “Swede from the East Side of St. Paul,” with a little prodding, you’ll learn that he carries many other titles as well: lawyer, former Minnesota state legislator, war veteran, proud father of six, cancer survivor.

And one thing becomes clear: He does not shy away from challenges — he seeks them out. “I lied to get into the Navy in September of 1941,” says Johnson, who was 17 years old at the time. When World War II started, he was in the Navy ROTC at the University of Minnesota and went on to serve two years on a naval destroyer in the South Pacific.

After returning to Minnesota, Johnson graduated from the University’s Law School and practiced law for more than 50 years, in addition to representing the Highland Park area of St. Paul, Minn., as a state legislator for 12 years.

Yet to come was his biggest challenge. In the late 1990s, Johnson was diagnosed with prostate cancer and sought treatment at the University. Following months of radiation while under the care of Kathryn Dusenbery, M.D., Johnson made a full recovery.

“She did a marvelous job and restored my confidence,” Johnson says of Dusenbery. In the years that followed, he has made annual financial contributions and an estate gift to support her work. “She really took great care of me. You couldn’t help but support her,” he says.

Where the physicists come in

Dusenbery, an associate professor and head of the University’s Department of Therapeutic Radiology- Radiation Oncology, specializes in pediatric and gynecological tumors but also works on eradicating prostate tumors.

She says Johnson’s philanthropic support has helped to build one of the nation’s first residency programs for medical physicists and transformed the way the University trains the experts who deliver radiation treatments for cancer.

“Today’s radiation machines are very complicated. It takes trained medical physicists to make sure the equipment is running correctly and that the doses desired are actually delivered,” Dusenbery explains.

“Our physicists leave this institution very well trained. Because of their skills, the treatment given under their supervision is as accurate and safe as it can be,” she says.

Importance of philanthropy

“Mr. Johnson’s gifts along the way have helped a lot,” Dusenbery says. “Bob had a lifelong interest in education, as did his late wife, Betty. I’m pleased that these gifts have been used for education.”

In addition to annual gifts, Johnson created a charitable lead trust; half supports Dusenbery’s work, and half supports the Masonic Cancer Center, University of Minnesota. The trust, which contributes to the University annually, also provides Johnson with financial and tax benefits.

“I’m a firm believer that if somebody does something for me, I should do something for them,” says Johnson. “There are a lot of people who need help, and this was a beautiful way to do it.”

You can make a difference

Help the University of Minnesota save lives, inspire hope, and prepare the world’s future health care leaders. Make a gift today.

Because with your support, anything is possible.

Keeping current

2012-06-07T16:41:49Z

How to ensure that your benefits are distributed as you intended

You can have the most up-to-date will or living trust, but if your beneficiary designations on life insurance and retirement plans are not current, much of your planning could be undone. Consider:

Under federal law, a surviving spouse is automatically the beneficiary of a 401(k) plan. This is true despite what a will or prenuptial agreement states — or even what the beneficiary designation provides. If a widow or widower remarries, the new spouse will be entitled to the funds, unless a spousal consent waiver has been properly executed.
Unlike a 401(k) account, an IRA does not automatically pass to a surviving spouse. Instead, the beneficiary designation on file with the IRA custodian dictates how the funds will pass. This could create a problem if the named beneficiary is deceased at the IRA owner’s death or if the beneficiary is no longer married to the IRA owner.
Named beneficiaries of IRAs can take advantage of the ability to stretch out the receipt of income — and the payment of taxes — over their lifetimes. For example, if a 27-year-old grandchild is named the beneficiary of a $100,000 IRA, he or she need only take about $1,780 the first year, allowing the balance to continue growing. Each year’s required distribution will be based on the account balance and the grandchild’s remaining life expectancy. This option is available only for named beneficiaries, however, so it is important to keep designations current.
Life insurance generally passes to the beneficiary named on the policy. Owners who marry, divorce, or have other life changes should review beneficiary designations to ensure that they still reflect the owner’s wishes.
Keep in mind that you can name the Minnesota Medical Foundation (MMF) as the beneficiary of all or a part of your life insurance or qualified retirement plans. Your estate will be entitled to a charitable deduction for any amounts we receive, and any income taxes that might be owed by other recipients will be avoided.

To learn more, please contact Jay Kautt on MMF’s planned giving team at 612-626-0510 or j.kautt@mmf. umn.edu, or visit www.mmf.umn.edu/giftplanning.

You can make a difference

Help the University of Minnesota save lives, inspire hope, and prepare the world’s future health care leaders. Make a gift today.

Because with your support, anything is possible.

Find a planned giving option that works for you

2012-06-07T15:58:55Z

Try out our new online gift illustrator to see the available giving opportunities and benefits.

You can make a difference

Help the University of Minnesota save lives, inspire hope, and prepare the world’s future health care leaders. Make a gift today.

Because with your support, anything is possible.

An entrepreneurial approach to giving

2011-12-05T18:06:54Z

The Wallin Neuroscience Discovery Fund

The late Winston Wallin was keen to invest in promising but untested ideas. Today, that inclination is advancing brain research at the University of Minnesota.

In fact, U of M neuroscientists are testing all kinds of great, unproven ideas — from using electrical stimulation of the brain to treat addiction to redirecting stem cells to repair stroke-damaged brain tissue. But because much of this research is in the preliminary stages, getting federal grants to continue it is nearly impossible.

“Young investigators are unlikely to get [federal] support since they don’t have a track record or may be trying something that hasn’t even been thought of before,” says Aaron Friedman, M.D., vice president for health sciences and dean of the Medical School. “Most people want to bet on a sure thing.”

Luckily, Wallin wasn’t one of them. Shortly before his death in December 2010, he and his wife, Maxine, and their adult children put in motion the Winston and Maxine Wallin Neuroscience Discovery Fund, an annually recurring $500,000 gift to support the pursuit of novel ideas by University neuroscientists.

Researchers compete for grants that can be used as seed money to generate the data and evidence they need to apply for more long-term funding.

The Neuroscience Discovery Fund was an entrepreneurial leap of faith for the Wallins. They took the chance that this gift could help the University garner a larger share of federal research dollars and speed up the process of moving lifesaving research from the lab to the bedside.

“The Discovery Fund is an inventive way to support research and another example of how the Wallins have been longtime and dedicated champions of the medical sciences,” says Friedman.

A bigger piece of the pie

“Over the coming years, we hope to support dozens of projects with the Discovery Fund,” says the Wallins’ son Brad, who will help oversee the fund along with other family members. “If a handful of them get major grants, it will be worth it. Our father loved the idea of pulling more research money into the U. Out of the $26.6 billion NIH research budget last year, for example, the U received about $260 million. He wanted to grow that substantially.”

According to Brad and his brother Lance, their parents chose to support the neurosciences after learning that it’s easier to find donors to support other areas, like cancer and heart research, that are more familiar to people.

The dean of the Medical School will lead and administer the program, but an independent neuroscientist on the awards committee will give the Wallin family insights into the chosen projects.

“The Discovery Fund is an investment in the future, without any expectation of shortterm clinical solutions,” says Lance Wallin. “But our father would have very carefully watched the near-term milestones, which are whether or not this novel research attracts additional federal funds.”

Much of the Wallin Neuroscience Discovery Fund research will take place in the Winston and Maxine Wallin Medical Biosciences Building in the University’s Biomedical Discovery District, the emerging research park that Win Wallin labored long and hard to secure through a state bonding authorization. For the Wallins’ unstinting efforts on the U’s behalf, the building was named in their honor.

Their support of the medical sciences also included funding chairs in the Medical School and spearheading the Masonic Cancer Center’s capital campaign, which raised more than $30 million to construct the Masonic Cancer Research Building. In 1993 Win Wallin agreed to take on — with no salary — the U’s then-troubled health sciences as interim dean and vice president.

A family affair

Win and Maxine attended the University: he on the GI Bill and she on an academic scholarship. (Maxine also attended Macalester College.) Education was a philanthropic priority for them, and they founded Wallin Education Partners. Over the past 20 years, this group of donors has provided a college education and academic support for 3,000 standout Twin Cities high school students with financial need. Currently, 254 of those students are enrolled at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities on scholarships totaling more than $1 million.

The Wallin children are continuing their parents’ commitment to education and research. They are proud of and involved with Wallin Education Partners and, along with helping to oversee the Discovery Fund, Brad Wallin serves on the Minnesota Medical Foundation’s Board of Trustees and Neurosciences Development Advisory Committee.

The family hopes the Wallin Neuroscience Discovery Fund can be a new model for others looking for different ways to give to the University.

“This is an unusual gift at a time when a lot people are wondering what they can do to help,” says Brad. “Our parents have blazed a path for donors and shown them an innovative way to invest in research and the future success of the University. It will be exciting to see what unfolds.”

By Martha Coventry

To support the Winston and Maxine Wallin Neuroscience Discovery Fund, contact Catherine McGlinch at 612-626-5456 or c.mcglinch@mmf.umn.edu, or visit www.mmf.umn.edu/giveto/wallin12.

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Calendar of events | Winter-Spring 2013

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The Wallin Neuroscience Discovery Fund

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