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Baylor College of Medicine receives $100 million gift
Baylor College of Medicine is the recipient of a $100 million gift, thanks to the generosity of energy entrepreneur Dan L. Duncan and his family. Duncan, who is a member of the College's board of trustees, has targeted this major gift to BCM's cancer center, an integrated research, education and patient treatment center based in the Texas Medical Center. It will be called the Dan L. Duncan Cancer Center. The $100 million gift, one of the largest in Texas' philanthropic history, is incremental to $37 million the Duncan family has given BCM over the last two years in support of other initiatives, including $35 million last year for the Baylor Clinic, the College's new adult ambulatory care facility on Main Street in the Texas Medical Center and, prior to that, $2 million for prostate cancer research. "Our trustees, faculty and students share a deep sense of gratitude to Dan Duncan and his family. The real beneficiaries of this gift are the cancer patients who will recover and live longer because of the research and treatments that will be fast-tracked as a result of this unprecedented gift," said Peter G. Traber, M.D., president and CEO of Baylor College of Medicine. "My family believes in using business success to make a positive impact on the lives of others," said Duncan. "We have had the good fortune of being able to support the fight against cancer in a meaningful way and are proud to make an investment in what will become one of the world's most respected and successful cancer research and treatment centers. Our belief in Baylor College of Medicine's ability to move the fight against cancer forward is underscored by the College's collaboration with other great institutions here in the Texas Medical Center and elsewhere." The Dan L. Duncan Cancer Center is directed by C. Kent Osborne, M.D., a Baylor College of Medicine professor and recognized authority on breast cancer research and patient care. "With this generous gift from Dan L. Duncan and his family, we will be able to build upon an existing tradition of research excellence and medical collaboration that Texas can be proud of, and—at the end of the day—help bring an end to this painful and devastating disease," said Osborne. "While both the East and West Coasts have a high concentration of these designated top-tier institutions, with some cities having several centers, there are only two NCI-designated comprehensive cancer centers across the whole of the Gulf Coast and the Southwestern United States," he added. Osborne said the Duncan family gift should boost the College's chances of becoming a Comprehensive Cancer Center —a designation by the National Cancer Institute (NCI) of the National Institutes of Health that opens the doors for additional program funding to combat cancer. BCM plans to submit its application for NCI designation in February. According to Osborne, the Cancer Center is organized around eight major "programs of excellence," including cell and gene therapy, cancer prevention and population sciences, molecular carcinogenesis, nuclear receptor biology, breast cancer, pediatric oncology, cancer biology and prostate cancer. Corbin J. Robertson Jr., chair of BCM's board of trustees, points to the Cancer Center's collaboration with Texas Children's Hospital, the Michael E. DeBakey Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Ben Taub General Hospital, and St. Luke's Episcopal Hospital as hallmarks of its ongoing success. In addition, Robertson said, the Center has active and ongoing relationships with more than 30 academic or research institutions, including M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, the University of Houston and Rice University. "The College has always been community-focused, both in terms of the larger community in which we live, and the medical community in which we share unparalleled intellectual capital and clinical practices. Thanks in part to these many proud partnerships, the College has made an international mark in innovative cardiovascular and neurological research and treatments and, with Dan's family's help and the ongoing generosity of other donors, this institution will now become one of the world's great cancer centers," Robertson said. Under Dan L. Duncan's leadership, Enterprise Products Partners, L.P. has become one of the largest publicly traded midstream energy partnerships in North America. The Duncan-owned family of companies, including Enterprise Products Partners L.P., Enterprise GP Holdings L.P. and TEPPCO Partners, L.P. have an enterprise value of approximately $23 billion. Duncan and his family—wife Jan Ellis Duncan and four children, Randa Duncan Williams, Dannine Duncan Avara, Milane Duncan Frantz, and Scott Daniel Duncan—have been long-time supporters of health-related programs, civic organizations and other Houston nonprofits.
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