Ancient Citigroup CEO Sandy Weill announced on Thursday morning a gift of $ 50 million through the Weill Family Foundation to establish the Weill Cancer Hub East, a partnership aimed at using nutrition and metabolism to develop cancer treatments.
The partnership brings together four main research institutions – with experts from Princeton University, Rockefeller University, Weill Cornell Medicine and Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research – to develop an immunotherapy strategy to fight cancer.
“Good things happen when people believe in cooperation,” Weill said in an exclusive interview on “Squawk Box” from CNBC on Thursday morning.
Weill’s latest donation marks the foundation offering a total of more than a billion dollars to non -profit organizations.
“With the best spirits in the armed field of the most advanced research techniques, the Weill Cancer Hub East will seek to raise immunotherapy and improve patient care for people who fight against cancer,” Weill said in a statement.
The new partnership will focus on studying how nutrition and microbes that metabolize food can influence immunotherapy and other cancer treatments. The Weill Family Foundation said that the hub will also examine how GLP-1 agonists and other emerging therapies could affect cancer treatment.
Immunotherapy, unlike other therapies that directly target the elimination or attack on cancer cells, uses the patient’s immune system to combat interior disease. HUB’s projects will focus on the “reprogramming” of tumor microenvironment, the foundation said in a press release, and will also offer clinical trials.
“The way we can increase the efficiency of immunotherapy in all types of cancer and all patients is one of the scientific questions to which most must answer,” said Dr. Robert Harrington, Dean of Weill Cornell Medicine.
The search for the new HUB is intended to complete the research and development of the National Institutes of Health, said Weill, and cannot replace NIH’s work. However, Weill added that he thought that NIH’s work could be somewhat limited.
“I think they are not the big risk takers they were,” he said on “Squawk Box”. “I think it’s private sector work to be more risk lessee.”
The Weill Family Foundation previously founded another center in 2019, called Weill Neurohub, who brought together researchers from the University of California in San Francisco; The University of California, Berkeley; Washington University; And the Allen Institute to work on the development of treatments for neurological and psychiatric diseases.