With a tremendous $50,000,000 commitment to Texas Children’s
Hospital, Jan and Dan Duncan are helping create and launch the
world’s preeminent collaborative institute to study and treat
neurological disorders.
Worldwide, one billion people suffer
from some form of the more than 600 disorders that afflict the
nervous system. In the United States, 50 million children and
adults—more than the number of Americans with heart disease or
cancer combined—are affected by a neurological or
neurodevelopmentally-handicapping condition.
“Brain-related disorders account for
the majority of the nation’s long-term care costs, and when combined
with psychiatric disorders, they account for more hospitalization
and prolonged care than nearly all other diseases combined,” said
Ralph D. Feigin, M.D., physician-in-chief at Texas Children’s
Hospital and J.S. Abercrombie Professor of Pediatrics and chairman
of the department of pediatrics at
Baylor College of Medicine. “Yet,
research funding for neurological diseases, particularly pediatric
diseases, is less than half of what is devoted to conditions like
heart disease or cancer.”
Jan, who recently joined Texas
Children’s Board of Trustees, said she and Dan were moved by the
burden of the overwhelming number of different neurological
disorders and were surprised to see how many are interrelated.
“Research support in this area is
not commensurate with the impact of these diseases, and Dan and I
want to help call attention to the great need to focus on research
and treatments to help those who are suffering,” said Jan.
The Jan and Dan Duncan Neurological
Research Institute at Texas Children’s Hospital will be the first
dedicated facility to use a multidisciplinary research approach to
understand the unique issues of a child’s brain structure,
development patterns and related diseases.
“It’s not being done anywhere else,” said Jan. “With the sheer
magnitude of the problem, we saw how needed this is and what a
profound difference this institute and its research will make in so
many lives—not just here in Houston and Texas but all over the
world.”
“The Duncans’ gift will help realize
a vision of unparalleled promise and sets a new standard for
philanthropy at Texas Children’s—one that will help propel all of
our projects forward at an incredible pace,” said Mark A. Wallace,
president and chief executive officer of Texas Children’s Hospital.
“I cannot even put into words how immensely grateful we are for this
amazing contribution. Jan and Dan truly believe in our calling to
heal sick children, and they are building a beautiful legacy for
generations to come.”
According to Huda Zoghbi, M.D.,
director of the Neurological Research Institute and professor of
pediatrics, neuroscience, and molecular and human genetics at Baylor
College of Medicine, the Jan and Dan Duncan Neurological Research
Institute will bring all the needed experts—chemists, biochemists,
neurobiologists, geneticists, physicists, computer scientists, and
mathematicians—under one roof to solve these complex problems.
“Having diverse expertise in one
place along with a strong infrastructure of core facilities will
create an efficient research environment, where the technology and
tools are readily available to allow researchers to quickly conduct
a multitude of biochemical, genetic and pharmacological tests in a
high throughput fashion, accelerating the pace of discovery to
increase the likelihood of bringing novel therapies to patients,”
said Zoghbi, also a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator.
Scheduled for completion in 2010,
the Jan and Dan Duncan Neurological Research Institute at Texas
Children’s will consist of 15 floors, 400,000 square feet and
expansive imaging and behavioral cores. The building will be
physically connected to Baylor and M.D. Anderson to enable key
collaborations with those institutions.
The institute will focus on
collaborative research, education and identification of new
treatments for pediatric neurological disorders like autism,
epilepsy, Rett syndrome, cerebral palsy and learning disorders.
Zoghbi added that many of their studies will greatly impact adult
conditions as well such as Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease
and inherited balance disorders.
Dan is chairman and director of
Houston-based Enterprise Products, a leading North American provider
of midstream energy services. A self-made man who grew up in rural
East Texas, Dan turned a small business with one truck, two partners
and only $10,000 cash into a multi-billion dollar energy company
that today ranks among the nation’s most successful. Also known as
one of the world’s premier conservationists and sportsmen, Dan
married Jan almost 20 years ago.
Jan grew up in New Orleans,
Louisiana where she taught second grade for about 11 years before
moving to Houston in 1983. She was teaching at the Kinkaid School
when she and Dan met and fell in love.
On their first date, Jan said she
cried as Dan, a widower at the time, told her that he had loved
being married, wanted to be married again and wanted to share his
life with someone he loved and adored.
“I kept thinking, ‘Thank you, God,
you sent him,’” she said. Three months later, they were engaged.
Since that time, the couple has made
a number of significant philanthropic investments in and outside of
the Houston community to advance medicine, education, spiritual
endeavors, and nature and conservation efforts.
Their gift to Texas Children’s marks
a major milestone in the hospital’s $400-million Heal Sick Children
campaign, an ambitious expansion effort to broaden pediatric patient
care and to accelerate the path of research discovery.
“God gave Dan a tremendous gift for
business and finance, and he gave me a loving, giving heart. Like
everyone, we will be held accountable for the way we use the gifts,
talents and opportunities we are given,” said Jan. “God put a burden
on our hearts for the many children and adults suffering from
neurological diseases, so our gift is clearly what He wanted.”
Tony
Petrello, campaign co-chair and Texas Children’s board member, said,
“The Duncans’ amazing gift sets a tremendous pace for the institute
and for our campaign. Their generosity represents the most heartfelt
invitation to others to help.”
Jan
added, “The problem of neurological diseases, especially for
children, is staggering. We ask everyone to join us in supporting
the neurological research institute as we work to heal sick
children.”
