CHILD HEALTH INSTITUTE RECEIVES $2 MILLION

    The devastation of losing a child has led a family to donate $2 million to the Child Health Institute of New Jersey at UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School (RWJMS). The gift will be used to establish an endowed chair, the Laura Gallagher Chair of Developmental Biology.

      "It is our hope that the endowment of this chair will lead to discoveries in the prevention and treatment of health disorders that take or diminish the lives of this world's most precious beings, our infants and children," said the donor, Bern Gallagher. The chair is named in honor of his first child, Laura, who was born on March 15, 1987, and died that same day as the result of a rare bacterial infection. He and his wife Mary have three more children, Daniel, Andrew and Alice.

    The mission of the Child Health Institute is to develop new strategies for preventing, treating and curing childhood diseases. Plans include a $30 million facility with 40 state-of-the-art laboratories and support facilities for 14 senior researchers. The Institute will be separate from, but connected to, the new Bristol-Myers Squibb Children's Hospital at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital, which is currently under construction and is expected to be completed in Spring 2001.

    "We are well on our way to obtaining the necessary funding for construction of the Child Health Institute," says executive director Betsy Garlatti. A $3 million appropriation in the federal budget was recently approved, and additional funds will be sought through a campaign beginning in May.

    To date, more than $20 million has been raised, including donations totaling $12.8 million from The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and Johnson & Johnson. The Institute has also received an anonymous gift of $1.25 million to create a second endowed chair in developmental biology. At the donor's request this chair is being named for RWJMS dean Harold L. Paz, MD. Robert L. Trelstad, MD, has been named to serve as the first occupant of the Harold L. Paz Chair of Developmental Biology. Another anonymous gift of $375,000 will also fund research aimed at investigating the genetic and environmental factors of some major childhood disorders.

    "We believe that by studying the underlying biology of development we will open up new insights into ways in which we can design drugs, preventive measures, and novel therapies to improve substantially the health of children," said Trelstad, acting director of the Child Health Institute of New Jersey.