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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 [log in to unmask] or (760) 739-6641 SOURCE: North County Times, CA http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2003/12/18/business/news/12_17_0319_23_43.txt * * * ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask] In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn